“I would have denied the permit”: Gainesville City Manager pledges to address “disciplinary issues” in wake of shooting at Easter event

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the April 24 General Policy Committee meeting, the Gainesville City Commission discarded its planned agenda and instead discussed the process that led to the approval of an Easter event at TB McPherson Park that ended with three people being shot.

Economic development presentation will be rescheduled to a Special Meeting

The agenda was supposed to include a presentation on economic development, but Mayor Harvey Ward said they “did not want to, in any way, dishonor anything that happened [or] the folks who were affected this past weekend by talking about something more celebratory, which certainly the economic development discussion is.” He said the City will soon announce a Special Meeting for the economic development presentation. 

City Manager Curry: Application said the event would accommodate about 400 people

City Manager Cynthia Curry said there has been “a lot of discussion around TB McPherson Park in the three and a half years that I’ve been here at the City.” She extended her condolences to the family of a 20-year-old woman who was shot on Sunday and is “hanging on to life” and to her cousin, who was also injured. 

Curry said the application for a special event was filed with the Gainesville Police Department (GPD) and was tagged as an “Easter hunt for family and friends, accommodating approximately 400 people, requiring about 10 off-duty security officers, and a request for four officers from GPD to supplement that.” She said TB McPherson does not have enough parking for an event of that size, but a nearby church granted a request to use their parking lot. 

Curry said the event started around noon and ended around 4:00 or 5:00, although flyers were circulated on social media that advertised the event as ending at 8:00 p.m.; Curry said the request to end at 8 p.m. was denied. 

Curry: Crowd exceeded 2,000 on Sunday

She said she told the City Commission in April 2023 that because the Peaceful Sundays event had been held at TB McPherson Park on Sundays between February and August for 20 years, “it was time for that community to be given a reprieve from the crowds, from the music and activity. The parking was out of control, and the event – not casting any dispersion [sic] on the event, people have fun in different ways – but… they had outgrown [the park] and needed to seek another venue, and we had offered another venue which they did not want to utilize.” She said the events had become “regional,” with crowds “exceeding somewhere around 2,000 this past weekend.”

Curry: “My disappointment is that I… was never brought into the information loop.”

The application was filed with GPD, reviewed by GPD staff, and routed to the Parks and Recreation and Fire Rescue departments for review. Curry continued, “My disappointment is that I, the person who took the lead… to cease the activity… at TB McPherson, I was never brought into the information loop… Based on the history of what we have dealt with for many, many years, it, quite frankly, just took common sense and not a check of a box on a form to say, ‘Let’s stop and think about this and what it means.’ And so I never got that opportunity to do that. And I am very disappointed, I am very dismayed, and I am very sad, and based on what finally resulted – I realize that the shooting took place down the street and it was not in the park, but the people were there to attend an event in the park, and so it was still, in my opinion, tied to the event that should not have occurred.”

Curry: “I’m just being very upfront. I don’t believe that this would have occurred if we had denied the permit, and if I had been given the information that they had, I would have denied the permit.”

Curry said she has met with the Police Chief and other staff and has made it “very clear about how I feel about what occurred… I believe the City has been let down in a way, and I’m not hiding it, I’m not trying to sugar coat it, I’m just being very upfront. I don’t believe that this would have occurred if we had denied the permit, and if I had been given the information that they had, I would have denied the permit.”

Curry: “I will be dealing with some disciplinary issues as it relates to this event – quick, fast, and in a hurry.”

Curry said she had “every intention of addressing some disciplinary issues in this. I’m not prepared to say at this point what they are, but I will be dealing with some disciplinary issues as it relates to this event – quick, fast, and in a hurry… This is as transparent as I can get.”

Public comment

During public comment, Vanessa Henry said, “Let’s be clear, the guy that put on this event for our children stepped out and followed protocol, did everything that he possibly could to ensure that, with everything going on financially, that our children and our poverty-stricken areas were given baskets, given candy, eggs, the works. Him and his team went above and beyond. The event, the tragedy that took place after the closing of his event – everything was shut down… It’s the gathering outside of the gates. The gates are closed. Everybody’s gone. It’s the massive gathering outside that we can’t control, and it has to stop. You don’t have enough police in our community to police that area on Easter.”

Henry continued, “And then the crowd goes from there to the store, McDonald’s, Wawa, shut the street, took me 30 minutes to get from McDonald’s back to my house off 15th Street. Cars are blocked, there’s one police officer at the store. He can’t do it all. While there’s a real crime committed somewhere else, he’s watching to make sure that somebody walks across the street safely.” She said again that the shooting happened after the Easter egg hunt event ended: “These people weren’t even at the event, the majority of them; they were just there, and they come every year. That’s what has to stop.” She supported “shutting everything down… to save lives.”

NAACP Alachua County President Evelyn Foxx said, “I, too, am saddened by what happened on Sunday, and from talking to people in the community, the young people just want some place to go… I don’t know how we can control the crowd, Madam Manager.” She said, “Most times, the people that are there are not even from Gainesville.” She suggested holding events at MLK, Citizens Field, “or somewhere that’s enclosed, where we have a little bit more control… I don’t think anybody is to blame. It was unfortunate, and we just have to move forward and come up with some better ideas on what we can do to have entertainment for our young people.”

Duncan-Walker: “What was supposed to happen to control the crowd?”

Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker asked what mechanisms are in place to keep the attendance at events in line with the number on the application, “because that is a massive difference between 400 people and 2,000. TB McPherson is not big, yet we know it’s a draw… What was supposed to happen to control the crowd?”

Curry said she didn’t know whether there were 2,000 people inside the park, but the event spread over a larger area. She added, “My concern and conversation, too, with… GPD is just that if you have an application that says 400 and you realize [during the event] that in and out of the park is 2,000, it’s time to shut it down, plain and simple, or have a plan in place to manage it… That didn’t occur… As it got closer to the time for it to end, the organizers were asking for an extension, and the extension was denied by the Police Department, but at that time, I think the crowd was bigger than they could manage.”

Duncan-Walker said she was told there were cars parked half a mile down the street in both directions, and Curry said, “It’s been that way for 20 years.”

Curry said, “I’m going to deal with some disciplinary actions first, and then secondly, we’re going to modify the process.” She said that she wasn’t aware of any shootings at the Peaceful Sundays events: “It was just the crowds, the noise, and the community suffering from the parking,… and of course emergency access… Here in ’25 it morphs again, unfortunately, under the guise of an Easter egg hunt – which, again, I’m sure that there was some folk who had a little fun there, but… that kind of advertisement around the event created what we had, and it ended in tragedy.”

Duncan-Walker: “It’s not lost on me that folks desire a place to go… You can go to every single park in this city. The parks are yours. The issue becomes the size of crowds and being able to keep people safe.”

Duncan-Walker said, “It’s not lost on me that folks desire a place to go… The City does not have a park that is large enough to accommodate 2,000 people. So when I hear individuals come and say, ‘Well, where can we go?’, well, first let me say… you can go to every park. You can go to every single park in this city. The parks are yours. The issue becomes the size of crowds and being able to keep people safe.” She suggested the Gainesville Raceway as a venue for a large event. 

Book: “You know, it was dubbed Peaceful Sundays for years, and it was anything but peaceful most of those Sundays, and often there was violence. That’s a fact.”

Commissioner Ed Book said, “There may be a process question here, but this is more of an operational issue… You know, it was dubbed Peaceful Sundays for years, and it was anything but peaceful most of those Sundays, and often there was violence. That’s a fact. That’s factual. I know because I spent many Sunday nights out there, and it’s pretty important to know that I feel like, ultimately, the responsibility lies here with the shooters… The other overlaying area of responsibility is the organizers… – outside, inside, it’s all one event… It’s not over until everybody’s gone… The organizers here are known… There were many non-peaceful Sundays under their leadership, and this was another one. So they do bear quite a bit of responsibility and accountability… When they indicate it’s a community event, my question is always – what community?” He said the five neighborhoods next to the park “do not support that event. Period.”

Book: “We’ve made so many gains on the gun violence side in the last two years,… but look at the numbers, look at the people hurt – boy, we’ve had an awful last month and a half in the city and county.”

Book continued, “We’re the third layer. We’re the event managers, we’re the operators, we’re the people that set the tone, enforce the things we need to, make sure we don’t get over occupancy.” He concluded, “We’ve made so many gains on the gun violence side in the last two years – statistically, it’s been unbelievable… We can point to everything we’ve done, and it’s been positive, really. But look at the numbers, look at the people hurt – boy, we’ve had an awful last month and a half in the city and county. We’ve had people who’ve lost their lives in both the city and the county, and we can’t take another two steps back.”

Moya: There was an “influx of people” trying to get into the park around 7 p.m.

Commissioner Casey Willits asked for more information about the ending time for the event, and GPD Chief Nelson Moya said the permit called for the event to end at 7 p.m., but at about 7 p.m., the organizers asked to extend it to 8 p.m. Moya said the request was denied because “the permit was very clear,… and at 7 p.m., we began to see the influx of people trying to get into the park, so we knew that we had to end it.” The shooting happened at about 8:15 p.m. outside the park. 

Willits: There are venues that can accommodate 2,000 people, but there is a fee to reserve them

Willits pointed out that the City has parks that can accommodate 2,000 people, but there is a fee to reserve them, along with other requirements. He said, “We love bringing people in; it’s just that we need them at lots of different places, dispersed, or at one big event… I appreciate that the organizers went through the steps that we had laid out, but it sounds like our steps aren’t adequate enough.” He said the City’s institutional knowledge should have led to a realization that the event would attract more than 400 people and would not end at 7 p.m.

Curry: “When I feel like I have been kind of slapped in the face,… I’m not going to put up with it.”

Curry agreed and said that when large numbers of people are expected, such as the night of the Gators Basketball National Championship, emergency management plans are invoked and approved across many departments. She said, “That didn’t happen here, and that is a huge concern of mine.” She said she had previously met with the GPD Chief and his Captains and Lieutenants and introduced them to her Community Relations Director, John Alexander. “I was advised that every police officer is a community relations officer, and I’m not putting that statement down, but… you did appoint me as City Manager, and… when I feel like I have been kind of slapped in the face – it’s probably more transparent than I need to be right now – I’m not going to put up with it.”

Ingle: Probably not the best time to make long-term decisions

Commissioner James Ingle said everyone on the dais was emotional, so it was probably not the best time to make long-term decisions. He suggested that they wait for the investigation to conclude and then “make some real policy decisions on what we can do to avoid this.”

Ward said, “TB McPherson is a wonderful venue,… but it’s limited, as all venues are.” He said the roads aren’t meant for thousands of people and the park should be limited to gatherings of around 200 people. He said that when the City finds a venue for the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire, that will be suitable for a large event like the one this past Sunday, “but it will come at a cost.”

Ward: “We’ve made amazing progress [on gun violence], and none of that progress matters when a young person shows up to an event to have some fun and doesn’t get to go home, ever.”

Ward thanked Duncan-Walker for her work on gun violence prevention, “and as Commissioner Book mentioned, we’ve made amazing progress, and none of that progress matters when a young person shows up to an event to have some fun and doesn’t get to go home, ever.”

Ward: “It’s about time, with all the other headlines we see, not only in Gainesville, but around this state, that somebody let local municipalities do something about guns, if the legislature isn’t going to.”

Ward concluded, “The only other thing I want to say now about this is, this young woman is not on life support because she got into a fist fight or because somebody was fighting with her with sticks or swords or rocks or anything else. She was shot. There’s a gun problem. With all the other things that it is, there’s a gun problem, and we can’t do anything about that. We can’t restrict the supply of firearms or ammunition because the Florida legislature says we can’t do that. But it’s about time, with all the other headlines we see, not only in Gainesville, but around this state, that somebody let local municipalities do something about guns, if the legislature isn’t going to.”

Moya: “Moving forward, my commitment is to ensure that our processes are airtight so that a process is what leads the way, not discretion or experience or institutional knowledge.”

 Chief Moya said that after all the work to reduce gun violence, “for this event to happen, it causes me great distress beyond words.” He said he was responsible for the processes at GPD, and he wished that those processes had captured institutional knowledge, history, and experience. He said the “intangibles” should have led to a “tough discussion that should have been had in person by me, my fellow directors, and ultimately… [the] City Manager… Moving forward, my commitment is to ensure that our processes are airtight so that a process is what leads the way, not discretion or experience or institutional knowledge – that should be an element of the process and not the other way around.”

GPD expected crowds on East University and near Wawa

Moya said the department was prepared for crowds on East University and Wawa after the event, “and as expected, those crowds came, and we were there to do our very best to keep that crowd moving and keep everybody safe… But in hindsight,… it is the happenings outside of the park that should have brought us to a critical point of decision-making, and ideally, if you asked me today,… I, too, would have not approved that process, given the totality.”

Duncan-Walker: “Peaceful Sundays, the events that happen at TB McPherson, are cultural in nature, and so when we have a conversation about where they are, your organizers aren’t going to want to go to certain parks because part of the allure is the location.”

Duncan-Walker said, “Peaceful Sundays, the events that happen at TB McPherson, are cultural in nature, and so when we have a conversation about where they are, your organizers aren’t going to want to go to certain parks because part of the allure is the location, being in a particular neighborhood or being around people that they share certain cultural nuances, cultural similarities with. That I have heard directly from the mouths of organizers. An event like this is very much an experience. It’s an experience. It is the car show. It is the music that’s loud. It is the hair… And so where it is is critical, right?… Folks don’t have to agree with the way it’s done or what’s happening, as long as it’s safe and everyone who is participating in the event is safe and the neighborhoods around it are safe… I think we have to take all of that into consideration.”

Duncan-Walker suggests security checkpoints at events

Duncan-Walker proposed “checkpoints” to check for weapons, and Ward said, “We do that right here.” Curry said that if the City required that, the cost would be passed on to whoever is using a City venue.

Eastman: “Informal parties” along city streets are “one of the core issues that we have here.”

Commissioner Bryan Eastman said the Commission had “a lot of conversations” about similar events a few years ago, and “it’s horrible to be… back where we’re having these conversations again… [We want to make] sure that our policies and processes are balancing all of these things out; we want to make sure that folks are able to have the events they want to have while making sure that everyone feels safe.” He brought up “informal parties that will occur… along University Avenue, places like that. And it has been, to me, one of the core issues that we have here… Getting those crowds dispersed and making sure they’re moving along in a safe way seems like one of the central parts of how we keep this safe.”

Moya said these events “amass rapidly, and it puts us always in a reactive position, to try to break the crowd up, such that… on more than a couple of occasions, now, we’ve had shootings in the middle of that… Other times, when we plan for it in anticipation, it doesn’t happen. So… we’re dealing with, sometimes, the unknown, sometimes the known, based on… Facebook posts and social media… But even with that, it is very difficult for us to bring to bear the number of staff that we would need, even if we activated our mutual aid.” 

Moya: 30-40 officers would be needed every weekend to manage these gatherings

Moya said he would need to have 30 to 40 officers every weekend to manage these gatherings, which would require him to “draft, much like we do for the UF games, to force people to come to work… None of it… makes me very happy, and that continues to be an issue.” He said his department had an emergency operations plan for the gatherings that were expected after the Easter event, but they didn’t plan for what happened at TB McPherson Park at the end of the event, with so many people arriving right around 7, when the attendees were trying to leave.

Curry asked, “So the point that the [application] may have said 400 but history tells us that 400 is 1,000 or 2,000 – that never came into play?” Moya said they took the application at face value.

Ward: “We are absolutely dedicated to getting the problem solved and to moving forward.”

Ward concluded the discussion by saying, “There is no lack of concern from this commission, and for me, we are absolutely dedicated to getting the problem solved and to moving forward. You know, we are a community that enjoys celebrating, and sometimes celebrations bring unintended consequences, and we’re going to find way to button that up.” He again expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, and all the speakers in the meeting expressed similar sentiments.