A Gainesville man was arrested Wednesday on charges of attempted murder for a drive-by shooting that occurred in July.
According to the arrest report, Ja’quez Equon Wallace, 18, was previously arrested in October for a separate felony shooting investigation. On Wednesday, investigators found enough evidence to charge him with multiple other felonies, including attempted first degree murder, for his part in a drive-by shooting in July.
Wallace drove past Dee’s Liquor store in a stolen Cadillac and fired shots into a crowd of people on July 12, according to the arrest report. No one was injured, but judging by the bullets that struck surrounding vehicles, it was apparent Wallace intended to indiscriminately kill members of the crowd, according to the arrest report.
Gainesville Police Department officers found evidence Wallace purchased a 9-millimeter gun sometime between February and March 2024.
According to police, video surveillance July 12 showed the stolen black Cadillac stopped in front of Wallace’s apartment complex approximately two hours before the shooting. Two suspects exited Wallace’s apartment at Lewis Place at Ironwood apartments and got in the car, which was driven by a third suspect, and left Lewis Place. The suspects returned to the apartment building and left again at 11:39 p.m., 10 minutes before the shooting.
Witnesses confirmed the shots came from the passenger side of the vehicle. According to the arrest report, GPD officers believe there were at least two people in the Cadillac, a driver and front passenger.
When a GPD officer executed a search warrant on Wallace’s apartment in October, they found a firearm in his bedroom. Wallace was arrested on charges of possession and firing of a machine gun. He told officers the gun found in his apartment belonged to him and was only used by him. According to the report, forensic evidence matched the gun found with Wallace to the one used in the July shooting.
Wallace was charged with and arrested for possessing and firing a machine gun in October.
Through a separate investigation into the July shooting, GPD gathered enough evidence toward his involvement to charge him for the incident. He was charged with multiple felonies, including first degree premeditated attempted murder.
Contact Kaysheri Haffner at khaffner@alligator.org. Follow her on X @kaysheri_h.
Kaysheri Haffner is a second-year journalism major and the Criminal Justice reporter for the Alligator. When she's not on the clock, she can be found reading a book or working on a creative writing project.
