GPD Captains disciplined after Easter Day shooting at T.B. McPherson Park

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Two Gainesville Police Department (GPD) Captains were disciplined after an investigation into their actions before and during an Easter Sunday event at T.B. McPherson Park that ended in the shooting death of a young woman and injuries to two others from gunshots. The investigation initially recommended that Captain Victoria Young be dismissed, but that was later changed to a demotion; Captain Summer Hallett’s recommended five-day suspension was reduced to a three-day suspension after review.

The investigation began on April 21, a few days before then-City Manager Cynthia Curry stated at a City Commission meeting that she would have denied a permit for the event if she’d known about it and had  “every intention of addressing some disciplinary issues in this.”

The investigation focused on both the process of issuing a permit for the Easter Egg Hunt and Family Day event on April 20 and Captain Young’s actions during the event. Captain Hallett is responsible for the unit that processes, evaluates, and plans for special events, and Captain Young was present or nearby for much of the event at T.B. McPherson Park.

The investigation report describes the history of the “Peaceful Sundays” events that were held at T.B. McPherson Park for many years until Curry ended them in May 2023. Neighbors often complained about the noise and traffic generated by those events, and in 2023, GPD Chief Lonnie Scott Sr. said, “We’re out until 2:00, sometimes 3:00 in the morning, dealing with the crowds that originate at this event, and on a Sunday night, when you think that things would be slowing down earlier.”

Because of this history, the report states, there should have been more scrutiny of the permit that claimed the event would have 400 attendees; estimates from officers who worked the event range between 2,000 and 5,000 attendees at the peak of the event.

The permit for the event set its hours as 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., and the shooting happened a little after 8 p.m. However, by 6:30 p.m., there was significant traffic in the area, and by 7 p.m., one GPD officer said the event resembled a Peaceful Sundays event, with traffic issues in the area, open containers in and around the park, and off-road vehicles riding through the area. One officer estimated that up to 70% of the attendees were drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana, and several officers said the crowd size was an officer safety concern.

When officers tried to shut down the event, one officer said, the crowd “was not compliant and would not move out of the way to let vehicles who wanted to leave drive through the parking lot to the exit… Girls [were] twerking in the middle of the roadway, and some people [were] just standing in the way who would not move… The officers at T.B. McPherson never had control of the crowd… There were not enough officers at the park to manage that crowd.”

Captain Young

The investigation found that communication was poor during the event, and although Captain Young was the highest-ranking officer there and it was her district, she did not see herself as being in command and spent most of the event directing traffic, several blocks away. Several officers, including Young (who continued directing traffic) and two Sergeants, said they did not respond to the shooting because they thought other officers were responding. The report states, “As evidenced by their testimony, the officers assigned to the detail did not really know who was in charge. Although Captain Young was present, most officers stated they did not see her for most of the detail and she was, in fact, not inside TB McPherson Park for most of the detail… Captain Young said she was not in charge while she worked the Easter Egg Hunt and Family Day event. She said she only worked the event to assist the officers who volunteered.” 

During her interview, Captain Young reportedly said the event was “not Peaceful Sunday” and refused to estimate the size of the crowd. When asked why she didn’t go to the scene of the shooting, she reportedly said, “What was I going to do at that scene?” According to the report, “Captain Young said no one said they needed her assistance at the scene and she felt that her position directing traffic was critical and she should not turn it over to another officer.”

The report concluded that despite all of the issues noted by other officers, “Captain Young failed to supervise and direct officers in order to mitigate the increasing size of the crowd, the traffic issues, and the burden on the neighborhood as well as the park. She also did not utilize other resources that may have assisted in dealing with the public safety issue,” including requesting mutual aid from other agencies.

Regarding Captain Young’s decision to continue directing traffic instead of responding to the shooting, the report states that one of her reasons for doing that was that she had another shooting victim in her area but concludes that she did not handle that situation in the best way: “Regarding Captain Young’s assessment of the importance of maintaining the scene of the vehicle that was shot, the manner in which she did this was inefficient at best. The vehicle, which is a crime scene, could contain evidence such as bullet fragments. As such, the vehicle should have been secured or monitored. However, this was not done. Captain Young continued to direct traffic while the vehicle was parked across the road and in the company of various individuals. Twenty-seven minutes after the vehicle is known to be on-scene, Captain Young begins to identify the driver and learns the passenger has already left the scene. After asking another officer to photograph the vehicle, Captain Young returns to the intersection to continue directing traffic, leaving the vehicle in the same location.”

The report sustained allegations that Captain Young displayed “wanton or willful neglect” in the performance of her assigned duties and that her conduct on the job was improper; the “wanton or willful neglect” violation was later reversed.

The report lists a series of sustained allegations against Captain Young between November 2022 and May 2025, culminating in an email from Chief Nelson Moya to Captain Young on May 2, 2025, that said if he and Captain Young continued to “routinely navigate conflict” at the current level, he would have to evaluate her position as a member of his command staff.

The report recommended dismissal for Captain Young, along with written instruction and cautioning in the form of an Employee Notice. However, as a result of a Bill of Rights Conference, the “wanton or willful neglect” violation was voided and replaced with “productivity or workmanship not up to required standard of performance,” but the improper conduct violation was sustained. She was demoted to the rank of Lieutenant and will be placed in probationary status for a year.

Captain Hallett

Captain Hallett is in charge of Emergency Management and Special Events and is responsible for the unit that processes, evaluates, and plans for special events and permitted events. At the time, Captain Young was responsible for the analysis and planning of events that occurred in her district, especially those that were potential safety concerns.

Captain Young and Captain Hallett collaborated in the plans for Easter weekend, but the investigation found that the plans were “deficient based on the information they knew, as well as historical and institutional knowledge of Peaceful Sundays and Easter Sunday activities… Although Captain Hallett and Captain Young both testified they had no concerns the event would resemble a Peaceful Sundays event, some of their planning efforts indicate otherwise.”

Young reportedly warned the promoter that the event could not spill into the roadway or disturb the peace of neighbors who did not attend the event, and when she was asked to explain why she had done that, the report states, “Captain Young said, ‘People get really uncomfortable when there are large crowds of black and brown people.’ When further questioned about her categorization of the expected attendance as a ‘large crowd’, Captain Young denied saying ‘large crowd’. This is another indication that during the planning process, Captain Young expected a large crowd at the Easter Egg Hunt and Family Day event.”

Because Young and Hallett were concerned about an evening event downtown and the potential for crowds to gather at the park or in other locations between the Easter Egg Hunt and the downtown event, an Operational Plan was created for a Special Detail between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. on the evening of Easter Sunday, and an Operational Plan for a Traffic Detail at T.B. McPherson Park was created for the hours of 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. However, no Operational Plan was created for the Easter Egg Hunt and Family Day event; the report notes that this would have been Captain Hallett’s responsibility and that an Operational Plan would have provided the officers working the event with some guidance and direction: “As evidenced by their unsuccessful attempts to clear the park, direct traffic, and their inability to enforce violations, this guidance and direction was crucial.”

The report concluded, “Despite the indications there would be issues at the Easter Egg Hunt and Family Day event, Captain Young and Captain Hallett failed to properly organize and provide resources to the officers working the event to obtain the most effective results. Both Captain Hallett and Captain Young were deficient in their duties as Captains,” and the report sustained the allegation of wanton or willful neglect in the performance of assigned duties for both of them.

Captain Hallett had no previous violations, and the report noted that the normal consequences for the violation would be written instruction and cautioning in the form of an Employee Notice and three days’ suspension without pay, but “the expectations of employees, as well as the level of accountability they are held to, grows exponentially with rank.” So Captain Hallett was suspended for five days without pay; however, as a result of a Bill of Rights Conference, a violation of “productivity or workmanship not up to required standard of performance” was substituted for the earlier “wanton or will neglect” violation, and Captain Hallett’s suspension was reduced to three days.