Man charged with attempted murder after allegedly discharging firearm inside Tower Village apartment

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Kendrick Malcolm Stokes, 33, was arrested yesterday on a warrant for allegedly discharging a firearm inside a Tower Village apartment on New Year’s Day.

An Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy responded to an apartment in the 7200 block of SW 44th Place at about 1 p.m. on January 1, where the male victim said Stokes had shot at him. The female victim reportedly told him she had previously dated Stokes, but Stokes moved to Tampa several months ago.

The victims told the deputy that they were in the female victim’s apartment when Stokes arrived and knocked on the front door. The female victim told the male victim to go into her room and close the door so Stokes wouldn’t see him, and then Stokes allegedly kicked the door until the door frame broke; she said she and Stokes began arguing, and then Stokes hit her in the back of the head with what she believed to be a gun.

Both victims reportedly barricaded themselves in a bedroom, but Stokes allegedly broke down the bedroom door and argued with both victims; the female victim reportedly told him to leave and told the deputy that this enraged Stokes. She said Stokes racked the slide on his gun and told the male victim to leave but also stood in the doorway, preventing him from leaving. The male victim reportedly tried to escape through a sliding glass door, but Stokes allegedly fired a shot through the glass door, shattering the glass on the left side. The male victim kicked the right side of the sliding glass door in an attempt to escape and shattered the glass on the right side; he ran through the broken glass door and fled. Stokes allegedly fired another round at him as he fled. The female victim also escaped through the glass door and ran to a neighbor’s apartment to call 911. Stokes reportedly left in his car.

The responding deputy reportedly found a shell casing on the bedroom floor and a bullet hole in a plastic window blind. He reported that the sliding glass door was shattered on both sides; neither victim had been shot, but the male victim suffered lacerations from the broken glass.

Stokes has been charged with attempted homicide, armed burglary of a dwelling, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, kidnapping in the commission of a felony, display a firearm during a felony, and firing a weapon on residential property.

Stokes has four felony convictions (two violent) and four misdemeanor convictions (two violent); he served a ten-year state prison sentence for armed robbery out of Alachua County and was released in 2020. Judge Susan Miller-Jones set bail at $1,250,000.

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.