South Florida woman charged with 20 felonies after allegedly firing at least eight shots in a Walmart parking lot
Staff report
Updated at 3:20 p.m. on March 2 with bail information.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Brandy Alexis McLaughlin, 56, of Hollywood, Florida, was arrested this afternoon after allegedly firing at least eight shots during a multi-hour stand-off that required the evacuation of numerous businesses in Butler Plaza.
At about 7:49 a.m., a call was received from McLaughlin, who said she had accidentally discharged her firearm in reference to an act of vandalism; she reportedly said she had a gas can and there would be trouble if anyone fired at her.
When Gainesville Police Department officers arrived, Gainesville Fire Rescue firefighters told them they’d heard two shots coming from McLaughlin’s utility trailer, parked in the Walmart parking lot.
Officers made contact with McLaughlin by telephone and asked her multiple times to come out of the trailer so they could speak with her. She reportedly refused and made demands each time in exchange for coming out. She reportedly wanted officers to walk up to her trailer and also requested pictures that showed where officers were stationed “to determine whether [officers were] too close to her trailer.” During these calls, she reportedly said she had propane tanks, a loaded AR-15 rifle, and two handguns.
At about 9:07 a.m., McLaughlin allegedly fired another round, but officers were not able to determine where the round was aimed. McLaughlin also allegedly pointed a gun at officers several times during the negotiations.
Another round was fired at 9:15 a.m., and more rounds were reportedly fired at 11:45 a.m., 11:57 a.m., 11:58 a.m., and 11:59 a.m.
The arresting officer reported that each gunshot placed numerous people in danger, including the original responding officers, Walmart customers, people driving by, and additional law enforcement and emergency response teams.
The arresting officer reported that McLaughlin “seemed to be suffering from audio and visual exclusions. [She] seemed at times to be talking to people that were not there and was also seeing people that were not there.” This reportedly hampered attempts to resolve the situation.
She was eventually taken into custody peacefully at about 1:50 p.m.
McLaughlin has been charged with nine counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, ten counts of aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence, resisting an officer without violence, and discharging a firearm in public.
Judge Susan Miller-Jones ordered McLaughlin held without bail pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s office to hold her without bail until trial. Her criminal history will be available on Monday afternoon.
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.
Bail??? Are you kidding me?? This SFL lunatic needs a permanent bed where it will receive proper treatment for its mental illness.
They don’t believe in that or in domestic violence against women alachua county. Just turn the perpetrator lose
they don’t believe women can be the one causing the domestic violence they call into the police. women are the worst narcissitic people at time
Lol for every 1 woman shooter on this page there are easily 29 males. It’s disgusting
Yeah, well most of the shooters “don’t look like her,” if ya know what I mean. Right?
It?
Are you familiar with the Bill of Rights?
Yes bail!!!! He is a woman and all women deserve bail.
That’s what Judge Miller-Jones is trying to do. Where did you read otherwise in this article?
the article was updated with the info about wanting them held without Bail, it earlier mentioned a Bail amount.
She didn’t get bail. Read again.
She’s LOCO for real and she needs severe Mental Health treatment. She lucky, She was handle with care, that Black lady with mental Health issues was slammed to the floor by the arresting officers.
Dude…sorry, that lady sure looks like a dude.
She came to Gainesville for the haircut.
The cops should of dispatched her when she, or whatever she identifies as, pointed the gun at them. Alachua County Sheriffs must not have been there because she’s still alive.
They did the right thing not shooting at her because of not knowing what was in the utility trailer. It could have been way worse if there had been explosive material and no telling how much ammunition that could have been set of in a explosion.
I won’t hold my breath waiting for Susan Bottcher to weigh in on this one.
Agreed. She’s sure to botch things up as always.
She will probably say that Brandy “identifies” as a straight white male, hence this act of gun violence. But I can’t wait to hear what the wyze wahmen has to say.
Uh, why would she?
people “who” were there
It’s a quote from the arrest report. Take it up with the police officer.
>>That: relative pronoun
We use that to introduce defining relative clauses. We can use that instead of who, whom or which to refer to people, animals and things. That is more informal than who or which:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/that
But they offed teenager Robert Jammer during his mental health crisis !!! 🤔 Wonder the difference…??
She’s a sacred cow here. Did you forget where we are? The only thing more sacred might be a trans woman of color, but that’s debatable. “I’m sure she had a really good reason for what she did.” Don’t be surprised if you hear that a lot.
The different is they knew there was explosive material and didn’t know what else was in the utility trailer. All of you making this about race should really use some common sense .
BiasedMuch – Please provide a link
Amazing work GPD-no casualties or injuries in an extremely difficult situation.
Racist works of GPD, If she was any ethnicity other than white she would be dead!
rightfully so
Let’s hope Rawls isn’t the judge. If so, she’ll be out tomorrow by dinner time.
Judge Susan Miller-Jones is handling first appearances tomorrow.
She is no better than Rawls. They are part of the problem. I hope they throw the book at her.
Make mental institutions great again.
@DLH – yes!!!! And that’s coming from someone that has a schizophrenic and homeless relative. It’s not humane for anyone, including them, to let them live without constant supervision.
You know what, is mental illness.
What a clown, putting people life’s in danger. Hope she gets the help she needs
If it would have been black or Hispanic person, they wouldn’t hesitate to shut. Mind you she was pointing guns several times at officers……
Stacy – “They wouldn’t hesitate to shut”
What were they suppose to shut??
Hey dummy, if someone is pointig a gun at you, you wouldn’t feel threatened? The police here is very racist like I said if it would have been any other race they would’ve been dead.
Pointig a gun?????
@Stacy You completely missed the point. She was pointing out your misspelling. Your lack of proper English is quite amazing. “The police here IS very racist”.
So you don’t realize we have a black Sheriff and a GPD Chief named Moya….
He is black , but receives grief from folks like yourself.
He’s useless like his old buddy Clovis.
Got to throw that race card in there. Come on, dude. Get some new material.
You will have to ask the head of SWAT why they didn’t shoot. It’s a no win situation in this town. People are calling racism because they didn’t shoot her. If they had shot her, the same people would be blaming the cops for shooting a mentally ill woman. Pick your poison. They will always blame the police.
How bout if she Cambodian or Eskimo???
Truth, and it’s saddens me, But so true!
She pointed a gun at officers and she still alive?!?! Bail?!? Smh.
May have had something to do with all the propane tanks she said she had in that trailer is my guess.
The ‘Violence Interrupters’ must have talked them down.
sad sack
Was “she/her” locked up with real women??? Is release on bail really being considered??? Our criminal justice system is so broken in this insane blue county…
Hallucinations. If you are seeing and talking to people who are not there, those are hallucinations.
Well well well. She picked the perfect town to go nutso in, to be coddled and groomed by taxpaid psych wards, jails, lawyers, too. Any other town wouldn’t have waited that long.
ACLUSPLCDNC 👹👺👿💩🤡🤑
Bail?! Absolutely not! Let’s not let this person back out before sentencing to potentially do more harm, mental illness or not! I can’t believe they let it go on as long as it did either.
It may be a good thing for authorities to educate people about why they didn’t take out the woman when she pointed her gun at them several times because the claims of racism are quite loud on social media
If I heard correctly, she claimed she had a hostage in that trailer, correct? Combine that with her proximity to her trailer, which allegedly had a bunch of propane, and I see two really good reasons right there.
In addition, maybe she didn’t present as a threat. The way she acted…was it particularly aggressive? The fact she was a middle-aged woman (race aside) probably made her less of a threat, statistically speaking. Had she been a young male acting aggressively toward the cops, there may be a different story
Now, bring race into it. If she had been a middle-aged Black woman having a mental health crisis, would they have shot her? My guess is no, especially considering potential hostage, the alleged propane tanks, and that she was right there, blocking an open door to the trailer
TL,DR: making this solely about race is lazy
TL,DR #2: if I am wrong, please show me all the times a frumpy (like Brandy) black middle-aged woman was shot without regard to safety for a potential hostage or people in the near vicinity (propane)
I can tell your heart is in the right place, but the naysayers don’t care about anything you’re saying because nothing police do is ever good enough for them. So I disagree, educating the public about why they didn’t shoot/kill this woman isn’t needed. The angry townsfolks with pitchforks need to apply to their nearest law enforcement agency TODAY since they feel they can do a better job.
ACPS Parent, sick of the BS – your comment is one of the best!!!! I agree with everything you said.
Trust me , if she was a middle age black female, she would be dead. She didn’t comply with the request of the responding officers. Oh I forgot you must be white to Matter.
blah blah blah, you are an i – d- i – o – t
No one wants to ask why Meth use is so common? How do they even make it when the ingredients are so regulated? The Gov has to be helping this. I can’t believe the meth epidemic keeps getting worse.
Pointed her weapon at law enforcement and nothing happened? Wow
Apparently she claimed to gave explosive items within the trailer from what I have been told and read. That would explain why GPD was doing everything they could not to escalate a obvious mental episode. No cop or human being should to take a life unless it’s the last resort. She was taken into custody peacefully. Yes it was a huge waste of time and resources but in the end no one died. Suicide by cop is a hard thing to deal with all the way around. Especially for the cop.
Good post bear
One more example of professionalism in law enforcement, especially for those who crave “defunding” the police. Rather than shoot dead a dangerous and mentally unbalanced person, they used skill and forbearance to apprehend her for treatment and protect the public.
Thank you GPD,Fire Rescue,ASO, FOR YOUR EXPERT skill in bringing this mentally ill person in without loss of life.
Glad no one was injured or killed. She obviously has some serious mental problems.
Can we get clarity on whether this person is a biological male? I think it is relevant.
It is a clear biological nut job.
I believe this woman is mentally disturbed. I believe she needs help, and I hope she finds it. That being said, she shot many rounds that were apparently in the direction of police officers. Despite no one being physically injured, I don’t see how she avoids a lengthy prison sentence.
She should be deported to san francisco.
so, this lady can “allegedly point a gun at officers several times during the negotiations” but someone who was suicidal pointing a gun at officers deserved to die a few years ago??
What? – who are you referring to from a few years ago?
No one else was in there with her? They should have just filled her with holes. Now she’s gonna sit in prison and be a drain on tax payers.
they need to be deported back to Upper Cuba. 😉