Law and public safety

Gainesville and eight other U.S. cities have joined a national initiative called One Nation/One Project that uses the arts to improve community well-being. Each city selects an issue for the focus of the project. The Gainesville City Commission recognized youth gun violence as its local issue. The commission said it has allocated 2% – or $648,172 – of American Rescue Plan Act money to fund the project, which will address youth violence through arts and culture interventions.

Two men were arrested Tuesday and accused of running a human sex trafficking business in a Gainesville group home. The arrests happened at a Gate gas station on 3001 NW 13th Street at 4 p.m. The suspects' identities were confirmed as 20-year-old Kevarius Nyrtell King and 25-year-old Justin Terrel Hoyt. The victim was living in the Safe Hands Group Home, a housing service partnered with homeless shelters and co-owned by King since a little less than a year ago. The two men forced the victim into multiple sexual acts, sometimes without her consent, with dozens of men in the group home. Police were able to report the crime as the victim had told the staff at the Tower Road Branch Library that she was a victim of human trafficking and to alert the authorities. Through a search warrant of the group home, police were able to confirm the identities of King and Hoyt and later arrest and charge them with human sex trafficking. King and Hoyt are currently booked in the Alachua County Jail, each with release bonds set at $250,000.

Prosecutors in Gainesville have dropped a highly publicized felony criminal case against a teenager they accused of sending a bomb threat to his high school last year. They said they could not determine who was at the keyboard of the laptop used to send the threatening message. The case involved 17-year-old Reginald Javon Copeland Jr., who was among several students accused of sending multiple bomb threats over a week’s time to Eastside High last year. The decision to drop the case against the teen came last week in Alachua County Circuit Court, nearly a year after Copeland was initially arrested.

The fire rescue team also partnered with the National Guard to send two full semi-trucks of water and MRE’s (meals-ready-to-eat) to Lee County.

FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Gulf of Mexico swallowed driftwood, stray shoes, split skim boards and the last vestige of Crystal Edge’s mother’s memory in the days following Hurricane Ian’s devastation. The 28-year-old sailboat – a family heirloom – remained trapped below piled debris at a marina under the Fort …

Hurricane Ian has left thousands of Florida residents struggling with basic needs, and many organizations are making donation and volunteer opportunities available to the public. Gov. Ron DeSantis encourages the public to make monetary donations to enable relief organizations to do their work. Within the last 24 hours, people have donated more than $2 million to Florida hurricane relief efforts. The Category 4 hurricane shifted its course to the east before making landfall just after 3 p.m. Wednesday, catching residents off guard. Many people who could not evacuate are experiencing flooding and infrastructure failure.