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Gunfire disrupts Easter celebrations in Gainesville, Lake City
By Luena Rodriguez-Feo Vileira
April 21, 2025 at 5:12 PM EDT
Police are investigating two separate shootings that occurred at Easter celebrations in Gainesville and Lake City Sunday night, injuring a total of four people, including a police officer.
Gainesville police say they are still looking for the person who shot three people at an event at TB McPherson Park around 8:15 p.m.
Police units were already present in the area, where tens of cars lined the streets, when a Black male wearing red shorts and a gray hoodie opened fire into the crowd.
All three victims were transported to Shands and remain alive, police say. One is facing life-threatening injuries.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact Alachua County Crime Stoppers at 352-372-7867 or stopcrime.tv. Members of the public can also contact Gainesville Police Department Detective Matt Quin directly at 352-393-7670 or quinnmt@cityofgainesville.org.
Officials in Lake City have taken three people into custody after gunfire broke out just after 8 p.m. at a community Easter celebration at Annie Mattox Recreation Center, striking an officer in the arm.
Lake City police officers and Columbia County sheriff’s deputies were providing crowd control for the event, which draws a couple thousand people annually, when a fight broke out among several attendees, police say. When law enforcement officials attempted to intervene, one attendee fired shots, wounding Lake City police officer Marcus Hardison.
Despite claims on social media that Hardison was shot by another officer, no officers or deputies fired their weapons during the incident, said Lake City Police Chief Gerald Butler.
Hardison was transported to a nearby trauma center to treat his injuries, which were not life threatening. There have been no reports of other people shot at the event, according to the Lake City Police Department.
As officers were responding to the shooting, however, an unrelated incident led to the arrest of a man harassing the nearby news crews covering the scene.
Officials say Adam Lee Dicks, 43, began yelling profanities at a camera crew that was packing their equipment, demanding their tapes and recordings. Dicks continued threatening the crew face-to-face before briefly taking a fighting stance, which police say prompted them to intervene.
After Dicks refused police orders to leave the area and ignored warnings of arrest, an officer attempted to detain him. Dicks resisted by pulling away, resulting in a brief struggle that left him with a minor scratch on the side of his face, police say.
“While we respect the public’s right to film and the media’s role in covering events,” Butler said, “we will not tolerate interference at active crime scenes.”
Police transported Dicks to Columbia County Jail, where he faces a felony charge of obstructing a police officer without violence. His bond was set at $5,000.
Dicks was released from prison in October 2023, after serving two years on a weapons charge. He also holds previous convictions for possession and sale of meth from 2012 and 2016.
Gainesville police say they are still looking for the person who shot three people at an event at TB McPherson Park around 8:15 p.m.
Police units were already present in the area, where tens of cars lined the streets, when a Black male wearing red shorts and a gray hoodie opened fire into the crowd.
All three victims were transported to Shands and remain alive, police say. One is facing life-threatening injuries.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact Alachua County Crime Stoppers at 352-372-7867 or stopcrime.tv. Members of the public can also contact Gainesville Police Department Detective Matt Quin directly at 352-393-7670 or quinnmt@cityofgainesville.org.
Officials in Lake City have taken three people into custody after gunfire broke out just after 8 p.m. at a community Easter celebration at Annie Mattox Recreation Center, striking an officer in the arm.
Lake City police officers and Columbia County sheriff’s deputies were providing crowd control for the event, which draws a couple thousand people annually, when a fight broke out among several attendees, police say. When law enforcement officials attempted to intervene, one attendee fired shots, wounding Lake City police officer Marcus Hardison.
Despite claims on social media that Hardison was shot by another officer, no officers or deputies fired their weapons during the incident, said Lake City Police Chief Gerald Butler.
Hardison was transported to a nearby trauma center to treat his injuries, which were not life threatening. There have been no reports of other people shot at the event, according to the Lake City Police Department.
As officers were responding to the shooting, however, an unrelated incident led to the arrest of a man harassing the nearby news crews covering the scene.
Officials say Adam Lee Dicks, 43, began yelling profanities at a camera crew that was packing their equipment, demanding their tapes and recordings. Dicks continued threatening the crew face-to-face before briefly taking a fighting stance, which police say prompted them to intervene.
After Dicks refused police orders to leave the area and ignored warnings of arrest, an officer attempted to detain him. Dicks resisted by pulling away, resulting in a brief struggle that left him with a minor scratch on the side of his face, police say.
“While we respect the public’s right to film and the media’s role in covering events,” Butler said, “we will not tolerate interference at active crime scenes.”
Police transported Dicks to Columbia County Jail, where he faces a felony charge of obstructing a police officer without violence. His bond was set at $5,000.
Dicks was released from prison in October 2023, after serving two years on a weapons charge. He also holds previous convictions for possession and sale of meth from 2012 and 2016.