GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A woman arrested after an armed standoff in Gainesville’s busiest retail district will remain in jail until her trial, as newly released 911 audio shows she fired a gun at police officers in a Walmart parking lot while she was on the phone with a dispatcher.
Brandy Alexis Mclaughlin, 56, of Hollywood, Florida, said during the 911 call she was calling for help because police were trying to enter the travel trailer she parked in a Walmart lot on the city’s west side. She remained in the Alachua County Jail on Wednesday.
The standoff forced police to evacuate dozens of businesses and block nearby roads for hours Saturday.
A judge on Tuesday agreed with a request from prosecutors to keep her in jail indefinitely, saying she was too much of a danger to the community. She was facing 21 criminal charges, mostly accusing her of aggravated assault related to the gunfire that came from her trailer.
In the newly released 911 audio, Mclaughlin told a dispatcher that police officers were attempting to get into her camper without a search warrant or probable cause.
“I need a (expletive) captain, mediator, Congressman, Mr. DeSantis, whatever,” Mclaughlin said. “I have a gas can right here. And if anybody shoots at me, I guarantee you I'll (expletive) blow up this (expletive) camper.”
As the call continued, Mclaughlin began arguing with an officer that she said was pointing a gun into her trailer. Around two minutes into the call, Mclaughlin fired off a gunshot, the audio showed.
“Ok. That’s a shot. I’m very (expletive) serious about what I’m talking about,” she said.
Officers initially tried entering Mclaughlin’s camper because she accidentally fired her gun in response to an “act of vandalism”, according to her arrest report. Police locked down the Walmart and evacuated nearby businesses after Mclaughlin told officers she had an AR-15 assault-style rifle, two handguns and propane tanks.
Mclaughlin fired her gun at least eight times before she surrendered around 3 p.m., according to the arrest report. Her initial 911 call was made just before 8 a.m..
Her arresting officer wrote that Mclaughlin seemed to be dealing with “auditory and visual exclusions,” and that she was speaking to people who weren’t there.
Mclaughlin had been living in Jacksonville. She was arrested in August 2019 after a neighbor reported that Mclaughlin fired her gun in an incident that Mclaughlin blamed on her failure to “uncock” the gun safely. Prosecutors dropped the case. In January 2020, she was charged with failing to comply with a domestic violence injunction, but authorities never found her to arrest her.
Joseph Lack, who owns property in Jacksonville where Mclaughlin parked her camper, filed stalking reports against her in 2019. He wrote that she threatened to shoot him and his other tenants, and kept them awake at night. Lack also said Mclaughlin filed a false police report accusing him of hitting her after he tried kicking her off the property.
“[Mclaughlin] is bipolar, violent, and a bully,” Lack wrote in court records. “[She] says she has the law on her side so she can do what she wants because she is disabled.” Court records indicate that Mclaughlin has an artificial leg and service dogs.
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