Gainesville man with multiple previous convictions for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon arrested for carrying concealed gun

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Dwight Jerome Terry, Jr., 30, was arrested late last night and charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of marijuana. He was also arrested on an active warrant for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon that was issued as part of the investigation into a March 13 shooting that injured three people.

Last night at about 10:50 p.m., Gainesville Police Department (GPD) officers were in the area of 1024 W. University Avenue (near the location of a shooting the previous night) in an attempt to maintain order in a crowd of “hundreds of people.” An officer saw Terry in the crowd and knew he had an active warrant; the officer arrested him with the assistance of other officers.

A search incident to arrest reportedly produced a 9mm Sig Sauer firearm tucked into the front of his waistband and about 14.2 grams of marijuana.

The arrest warrant was based on a sworn complaint filed by a GPD officer during the investigation of the March 13 shooting. About half an hour after officers responded to the shooting, an officer was approached by a witness who pointed out a man, later identified as Terry, who had a gun.

Law enforcement later received a photo related to the shooting of a man wearing all black, with a black face mask; the informant said the man’s name was “Dwight,” and officers recognized the man as Terry.

On March 16, a witness told a detective that she saw Terry backing up from a crowd on March 13 and pointing a firearm toward the crowd. She said she turned around to avoid getting shot and heard shots fired a few seconds later.

Terry has four felony convictions and has served two state prison sentences, with his most recent release in February 2021 after serving a three-year sentence on two charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Judge Thomas Jaworski set bail at $310,000.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. 

    • How about a term of life in prison? This person is a career criminal and will eventually kill someone.

  • Imagine the horror if they brought out three or four K9 dogs and started sniffing the crowd for drugs. That’s probably the only way to deal with the current situation of Poe’s all-night roving mobs, which are undoubtedly like drug supermarkets. But the people in charge would rather talk about dogs being used to chase down runaway slaves 200+ years ago and other nonsense instead of solving the guns, hard drugs, and violence problems that are killing people every week.

  • Whaaa…?? ANOTHER convicted felon not obeying gun laws? Gee whiz, we better hurry up and pass another law (maybe insert “Pretty please” in the law’s language…)!

  • El Salvador built a big new prison, so maybe we should propose sending our repeat offenders there as a new industry?

    • Jeff: why would El Salvador want our convicts? We need more prisons and it should be hell…lock up convicted felons who get caught with a gun for mandatory 5 years and no need to go to court. Automatic 5 years. Get caught again, 10 years, etc.

  • Another one.

    If you’re legally able…nevermind. Just like these criminals, we’ve seen it and read it before.

    Stay safe everyone!

  • I’ve been to county jail with buddy before and he was crying about his small stay in jail I’m assuming he’s crying as we speak . Don’t do the crib if u can’t do the time 🐱

    • He’s never had jail time always prison so dnt lie on here to get clot you tlking like you know him but apparently not cause if you did you wouldn’t have spoke on wht you know dnt do that Mr 352 that’s not cool

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