Homeless man arrested for pointing a gun at GRACE Marketplace
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Tommy Lee Brown, Jr., 51, was arrested early this morning on a sworn complaint for pointing a gun and threatening to kill a person near GRACE Marketplace. He was also charged with cocaine possession at the time of his arrest.
The victim reported to Gainesville Police Department (GPD) officers that on February 17, he was in a tent when Brown came in and pointed a gun at him; the address of the incident is GRACE Marketplace’s address, but it is unclear whether the tent was actually on GRACE’s property. The victim said Brown racked the slide and said, “Stop playing with me, I will kill you.” A witness reportedly corroborated the victim’s account. The victim said he was in fear for his life and afraid to go back into the woods because he fears Brown will kill him.
A GPD officer made contact with Brown at his tent just after midnight last night, and Brown came out with one of his shoes. After he was placed into handcuffs, he reportedly asked the officer to get his other shoe out of the tent. The officer reported that he removed the shoe from the tent and found a plastic bag in the shoe that contained about 6 grams of cocaine.
Brown has been charged with aggravated assault and possession of a controlled substance. He has 13 felony convictions (five violent) and 35 misdemeanor convictions (four violent) and has served three state prison sentences, with his most recent release in January 2022. Judge Thomas Jaworski set bail at $60,000.
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.
I sure hope this is the first budget cut they do market place is a breeding ground for criminals and needs to go
With the money saved from closing Grace Mkt, we could buy one-way bus tickets to send the vagrants back to where they belong…we could use the saved money to expand the jail too. Zero tolerance on panhandling & vagrants. Ship them out of the city or put them in jail…
Police, fire, parks, & roads are Essential services…everything else is on the chopping block. What did we do before Grace? Government needs to focus on essential services and let the churches help their fellow man because they are 501c3 charitable organizations.
Let the fancy churches do their job. We can Ax Grace.
Stop funding maggot magnets. Period.
Not the type of neighbors I want.
Take ’em to Poe’s front porch, he invited ’em, let him feed ’em. I’m sure there’s plenty to go around & I hear Ward & a couple of other commissioners are looking to increase the population densities.
When it comes to “net 0 by 2045”…
I want it to mean “net 0 panhandlers and vagrants by 2045”.