In a joint effort by multiple law enforcement divisions, officers were able to act swiftly to protect most residents at a Spanish Trace Apartments shooting situation that ended with an alleged suicide.
Around 3 p.m. Wednesday, a Gainesville Police Department officer responded to Spanish Trace Apartments at 3500 Windmeadows Blvd. for a call placed in relation to alleged noise complaints, according to a GPD press release.
Kim Walsh, a resident of the neighboring apartment complex Regency Oaks Apartments, said she witnessed females being dragged away, one of whom was wearing a bathing suit.
Upon arrival, the officer spoke with some involved parties on the second floor when he heard gunshots in Apartment 11 on the first floor.
The officer ran down and found the victims, later found to be 21-year-old Desiree A. Reyes and 24-year-old Bruce Cheeves, running from the first floor apartment with obvious gunshot wounds in the arm and chest, according to a press release.
Ali Richter, a 21-year-old UF English major and resident of Spanish Trace Apartments, said she was in her apartment all day when the incident started.
She noticed cops were either escorting residents out of their apartments or commanding residents to stay inside, shouting, “Do you want to die? Get in your apartment!”
The officer heard another gunshot as he was getting the victims to safety at Oaks Pawn and Jewelry to be treated for wounds by EMS.
Both victims, who were evacuated and transported to a local hospital, suffered non-life threatening injuries, GPD spokesman Ben Tobias wrote in an email.
The shooter, later identified as 48-year-old Lorenzo Fitzpatrick, retreated back into Apartment 11, allegedly still armed with a handgun but no hostages.
Multiple divisions of GPD, including K-9, SWAT and the Negotiation Response Team, arrived with the help of Alachua County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Marshals Florida Fugitive Task Force, according to a press release.
Around 6 p.m., SWAT was able to slow the situation down to plan their approach, where police believed the shooter was contained in one of several apartments, Tobias wrote in a GPD Facebook update.
Around 6:30 p.m., officers unsuccessfully attempted to make direct contact with the suspect.
Gainesville SWAT officers, with assistance from ASO SWAT, formed a response team that ultimately cleared the interior of the apartment, where Fitzpatrick was found dead at about 6:50 p.m., according to a press release.
A handgun was lying near the body, leading investigators to believe Fitzpatrick turned the gun on himself.
[A version of this story ran on pages 1 - 4 on 6/19/2014 under the headline "Spanish Trace shooting suspect injures two, self"]
Law enforcement officers leave the Spanish Trace Apartment complex on Windmeadows Boulevard after it was cleared to be safe Wednesday afternoon. A man allegedly shot two people and then himself.
