The mass shooting at the outdoor basketball courts on the campus of Florida A&M University – which injured four people and killed an innocent bystander – stemmed from a feud between northside and southside Tallahassee gangs, court records say.
The motive emerged in a probable cause affidavit that was unsealed more than a week after a pair of 21-year-olds, Chedderick Thomas and Da'Vhon Young Jr., were arrested on a murder charge and multiple counts of attempted homicide.
The shooting hurt a 16-year-old, three adults and killed 20-year-old Travis Huntley. It was the second mass shooting to strike the capital city in the span of a month.
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Young, who is accused of driving Thomas to and from the scene, told investigators with the Tallahassee Police Department that he knew Thomas was going to shoot a man at the FAMU courts.
"Young stated that Thomas was shooting [the man] over some comments made on social media about a deceased person," the affidavit said, adding that the intended target was among the four injured. "Young stated this shooting had something to do with the feud between northside groups and southside groups."
The exact comments that purportedly motivated the shooting were not revealed in the affidavit.
Surveillance video captures shooting, leads to eventual arrests
When TPD officers arrived at the courts, just outside the FAMU Hansel Tookes Student Recreation Center, they were deserted. The witnesses fled amid the gunfire and the victims were taken to local hospitals by friends, court records said.
Investigators scoured the area. They found multiple shell casings and trails of blood on the concrete courts.
They viewed surveillance video from the FAMU Police Department. At approximately 4:25 p.m., a silver four-door Hyundai Infiniti had backed into a spot on the southeast corner of the parking lot. A suspect, who police say is Thomas, got out and walked toward the courts wearing colored pants and a camouflage jacket with a hood on.
Young waited in the car.
Police say Thomas approached the court, pulled out a handgun as he crossed the nearby pavilion and began opening fire on eight people playing basketball.
He then dashed to the parking lot and jumped into the passenger-side window of the moving car.
Using a clear view of the car's license plate, detectives connected it to Young and issued a warrant for his arrest.
The next day, he was brought in for questioning.
After being confronted with evidence, Young admitted that he knew Thomas' intentions. He said, however, that he feared the consequences of not helping Thomas.
"Young stated that Thomas said he was going to shoot [the man], and if Young left him behind, Young would know what would happen to him," records said. He later told police that before driving away from the scene, Thomas "pointed his handgun towards Young and told him to drive."
Both men are in the Len County Detention Facility without bail while they await trial.
Recent history of north-side and south-side gang violence
The running conflict, which is often described as "feuds" between northside and southside "groups", have been linked to multiple high profile shootings in the capital city for some years.
Investigators rarely label an incident "gang-related" because state statutes are narrow in defining a gang.
These local "cliques" involve people from the same neighborhood or apartment complex who sometimes settle their beefs against one another with guns they got off the streets. Police say they are not the organized crime syndicates like the Bloods, Crips and Gangster Disciples, which plague other cities.
More on Tallahassee's gangs:When disrespect can lead to death: Dissecting the 'gang feud' in Tallahassee
On Aug. 20, 2020, two suspected gang members were injured in a drive-by shooting outside the Time Saver convenience store on Alabama Street. Centel "Po Boy" Deshazier, a 40-year-old bystander, was shot and killed in the crossfire.
A year earlier, De’Quan Davis, 16, Amarion James, 16, and Trent Lee, 19, were killed in two separate shootings. Court records said all of these shootings involved northside and southside gang members. These feuds trickle into local schools, too.
Last year, at least eight students were arrested after being caught with gun on campus. Three of them said they were armed for protection.
So far this year, on-campus guns have led to the arrest of at least four Leon County students.
An ACE student, who was a minor, told Leon County Sheriff's deputies last year that he needed a gun for his safety after saying he was affiliated with a South City gang. He and another student had beenarrested for carrying loaded Glock handguns on campus.
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And while feuds between the northside and southside groups continues, out-of-county groups have also been increasingly linked to violence in Tallahassee.
The late-October mass shooting, which killed an innocent bystander and injured eight others, is said to have involved out-of-county groups who came to Tallahassee to resolve quarrels, according to police.
Members of these groups allegedly fired over 70 shots among a crowd of hundreds gathered outside Half Time Liquors and Bajas Beach Club.
At least two of the four men arrested in connection with the case lived in Gadsden County at the time of the shooting.
One of them, De'Arius Cannon, was recently found guilty of attempted manslaughter and improper exhibition of a firearm in the first trial following the deadly mass shooting.
Contact Christopher Cann at ccann@tallahassee.com and follow @ChrisCannFL on Twitter.
