The Gainesville Police Department arrested a Northwest Gainesville man who is accused of being connected to a fatal shooting that happened early Tuesday in a downtown parking lot.
Gareth Fay, 22, was arrested by authorities Thursday night in connection with the shooting that took place at approximately 3:15 a.m. outside an office building located near City Hall at 222 NE 1st St., according to a Friday GPD press release.
The victim was found dead by police after suffering two gunshot wounds to his chest area, according to the GPD arrest report.
Surveillance footage from The Escape Room, located at 239 W University Ave., showed the victim in the passenger seat of a black Nissan, and a silver Honda Accord Hybrid appearing to follow the car at approximately 3:05 a.m.
According to the report, one of the passengers in the Nissan exited the car and approached the Honda before returning to their car. The victim then exited and banged his fist on the front windshield of the Honda. After the fourth bang, two gunshots were fired through the windshield and into the victim.
The Honda quickly fled, the report read. An anonymous tip to GPD accused Fay as the shooter and told police that Fay had gotten into a fight at a bar, left and “waited for the dude to come out,” prior to the shooting.
According to the report, a witness told police Fay is known to carry a revolver and had a bad date the night before and went to Midtown to have a few drinks before the incident.
The arrest was made after “significant intelligence” of the tip was revealed early Thursday morning, the release read. Fay was arrested with no resistance.
This is the second shooting in Gainesville this week. The other shooting took place in the first block of Northwest First Street. According to the release, the shootings resulted in two deaths and one injury.
In the other shooting, Demetrius Hardy Jr., 19, was arrested by the U.S. Marshal Fugitive Task Force and accused of being in connection with the shooting that took place the morning of March 6 at 100 NW 1st St., the release read.
GPD expressed its condolences to the friends and families of those affected in the release.
“Two murders in one week may have caused citizens to feel shock and fear,” the release read. “We want to reassure everyone that our City is safe.”
Fay is being held in the Alachua County Jail with a bond of $500,000 as of Saturday afternoon.
Contact Samia Lagmis at slagmis@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @SLagmis.
