By Cindy Swirko
By Deborah Strange

ALACHUA, FL – Alachua had its first homicide in 10 years, and five people were shot afterward. Residents say the violence is out of the ordinary. The Monday night shooting on an Alachua street that sent five people to the hospital was gang-related and may have been a dispute over drugs, Alachua police said Tuesday. One of the five remains in critical condition, Sgt. Jesse Sandusky said Tuesday night. Two were treated and released — a 24-year-old woman and a 3-year-old girl. Still hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries are a 2-year-old boy and an 18-year-old man.

Their names are not being released to protect their safety, Sandusky said. Sandusky would not say if the man in critical condition was specifically targeted in what authorities believe was a revenge attack for a Sunday night murder in an Alachua park.

“It’s all gang-related. There are a whole bunch of things to hammer out and investigate to try to determine who was involved, which members of the gangs,” Sandusky said. “It’s a detailed investigation. These are going to be neighborhood gangs.” Police believe Tuesday’s gunfire was payback for the Sunday night shooting of Dana Walker Jr., 27, in Maude Lewis Park at 15731 NW 141st St.

At 1:45 p.m. Sunday, police were called to the park after gunshots were fired during an altercation. Walker was found unresponsive on the basketball court and pronounced dead at UF Health Shands Hospital. His death is the first homicide in Alachua in 10 years.

Police were called Monday at 6:37 p.m. to 14223 NW 156th Place in Alachua, two blocks south of the park, where they found the victims wounded in the road. Two children, a boy and a girl, were shot, as were two men and a woman. Sandusky said the shootings occurred on the street. Several of those shot were bystanders.

“We have some witnesses who we are interviewing and leads that we are following up on,” Sandusky said. “Some of the (people wounded) were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don’t think necessarily all of them were targeted.” The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office has been assisting the investigation, Sandusky added.

Tahir Oyebamiji of Tampa was visiting his girlfriend in a neighborhood near the park. He was walking up to the house Monday evening when he heard gunshots. “I never thought anything like this would happen out here,” he said. Oyebamiji has exercised at the park, and it’s typically a quiet neighborhood, he said.

Down the street, at least four police cars were at 15604 NW 141st St., where Alachua Police Chief Chad Scott said investigators were looking into suspected drug activity. He said it was possibly connected to the shootings.

Julie Tucker, owner of a quilting shop, Julie’s Pins and Needles, was doing inventory at the shop during Monday’s shooting. She didn’t hear anything, she said Tuesday. “It’s usually very quiet,” Tucker said. “This is definitely out of the ordinary.”

She said she was disturbed that the shooting could be in retaliation for Sunday’s homicide. “I’m always fearful retaliation creates more retaliation,” she said. Austin Maurice, who works at Main Street Pizza Co., said he knew one of Monday’s shooting victims. The two had played football together at Santa Fe High School, he said. He is an “absolutely amazing kid,” Maurice said. “Loves everyone with a big heart.”

He said he wouldn’t be surprised if Monday’s shootings were a gang retaliation. But with a man dead and two children shot, he said, he expects the violence might settle down. “Everyone’s going to realize it’s not worth it,” he said. Sandusky said Monday the department has already identified a person of interest.

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