Man arrested for setting fire inside Gate store near university

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Shedrick Deonte Weston, 25, was arrested yesterday after allegedly setting fire to a bag of candy inside the Gate store near the UF campus.

At about 9:16 a.m. on April 28, a Gainesville Police Department (GPD) officer responded to Gate (506 NW 13th Street), where a manager said his employees told him they saw a black male walking around inside the store, acting suspicious, before they noticed smoke coming from an endcap and found a bag of Skittles Gummies that was on fire. The manager said he stomped out the fire and then checked the surveillance cameras; surveillance video reportedly showed the man setting the bag of candy on fire. The manager saw the man leaving the store and called 911.

The officer reported that surveillance video showed a man setting a bag of candy on fire and then walking slowly around the store, looking at various items. The officer sent out a description of the suspect to other officers, along with a picture from the surveillance video.

A clerk reportedly told the officer that she saw smoke and then saw a flame, so she notified her manager. She said she saw a man walking slowly away from the fire, and he came up to her with a “moonpie” in his hand, as if he were planning to purchase it, but he just set it down on the counter. The clerk said the man was mumbling to himself and said people were trying to kill him.

A second witness reportedly told the officer that she saw a man walking around the store after they noticed the fire, and he was holding a “moonpie” in one hand and a white lighter in the other hand.

GPD officers located Weston at Gator Beverage (1126 W. University Ave.), and the second witness reportedly identified him as the man she had seen inside the Gate store.

Post Miranda, Weston reportedly said he was trying to go to Gator Beverage and the fire scared him. When the officer asked whether he had been at Gate, he asked what the date was; when the officer gave him the date, he said “they” set the bag of candy on fire, and it scared him. When the officer asked who set the fire, Weston reportedly started mumbling to himself.

The officer asked whether it was possible that he had set a bag of candy on fire at Gate, and Weston reportedly began crying uncontrollably and said, “You got me.” When the officer asked Weston if he had a white lighter on him, Weston reportedly nodded yes.

Weston has been charged with first-degree arson. Although his address is listed as Ocala, a sworn complaint for cyber harassment was filed against him in Alachua County in 2022 but later dropped, and he was arrested in 2023 for shoplifting from the Maa & Paa Store, but that case can no longer be found in the court system. He has two felony convictions (one violent) and four misdemeanor convictions (two violent), and Judge Meshon Rawls ordered a mental health evaluation and ordered him held without bail pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s Office to hold him without bail until trial; if the judge denies the motion, bail will be set at that hearing.

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.