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The FAMU shooting has left Tallahassee counting wounded children.
Homecoming weekend should have ended in celebration on Perry Street.
Instead the city is asking hard questions about gun violence.
On Tuesday city and county leaders stood steps from Bragg Memorial Stadium.
Law enforcement, clergy, educators and advocates stood with them in public.
They came with one message for a grieving and frustrated community.
The gun violence shaking Black Tallahassee can no longer be treated as normal.
Major Takeaways
- Twelve people were injured Saturday night near Bragg Memorial Stadium after the Florida A and M homecoming game.
- Six of the injured were minors, and the youngest victim was only 11 years old.
- Officials said shootings followed on four straight days, deepening anger and grief across the city.
- Leaders called for funded mentoring, neighborhood investment and joined up work instead of separate efforts.
- A community vigil is set for Thursday at 6 p.m. at Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church.
A Celebration That Ended in Gunfire
The shooting broke out at about 8 p.m. on Saturday, October 24.
Crowds were still gathered after the Rattlers hosted Arkansas Pine Bluff for homecoming.
Police say a dispute among two or three people came first.
Gunfire followed near the intersection of Perry and Manatee streets.
Eleven people were struck by bullets in the chaos that followed.
A twelfth person, a grandmother, was hurt while fleeing the scene.
Three victims suffered serious injuries, including one minor.
The remaining nine were reported in stable condition that night.
One victim was believed to be a Florida A and M student.
Officers rushed victims to safety before the scene was fully secure.
Police Chief Lawrence Revell called their actions nothing short of heroic.
Urban City Podcast has followed the case from the first night, including the first report on the twelve people injured in Tallahassee.
Charges in the FAMU Shooting Came, and So Did More Questions
Police later charged 15 year old Anthony Rivers III in the shooting.
He faces 11 counts of attempted second degree murder.
He also faces a charge of possession of a firearm by a delinquent.
Prosecutors have said the teen will be charged as an adult.
Our coverage of the arrest and the decision to charge the teen as an adult lays out that step.
An arrest, however, did not answer the question hanging over Perry Street.
How does a child get a gun and reach this point?
That question grew louder as gunfire continued in the days after Saturday.
Undersheriff Ron Cave told the gathering that shootings came on four straight days.
The streak began with the homecoming night shooting itself.
For many families, the pattern matters as much as any single case.
The Numbers Behind the Pain
Cave shared research on homicides in Leon County from 2015 to 2020.
The study examined 141 homicides across those six years.
Of 108 victims counted in the summary, 81 were Black.
Black residents make up about 32 percent of the county population.
Officials described that gap as significantly disproportionate, and it is.
People ages 15 to 24 made up the largest share of victims and offenders.
About 85 percent had been suspended or expelled from school.
Half of offenders said their first crime came at age 12 or younger.
An updated study is expected soon, and Cave predicted similar findings.
Read plainly, the numbers describe children being failed very early.
They describe schools, families and neighborhoods carrying weight alone for years.
They also describe why a single arrest cannot end this story.
Leaders Say Rhetoric Must Turn Into Work
Undersheriff Argatha Gilmore spoke the line that defined the day.
"Tallahassee, I need you to hear me today because we have accepted gun violence as normal," Gilmore said.
She urged faith groups, schools, nonprofits and law enforcement to connect their work.
Too many groups, she said, are working separately in silos.
"All of us have a part to play in the solution of this problem that we have," Gilmore said.
City Commissioner Jack Porter promised to push for lasting solutions.
"You have my word that I will advocate for the kinds of long term solutions that we know this community needs," Porter said.
School board member Darryl Jones tied the moment to students directly.
Counselors met students on the first school day after the shooting.
"It is time to move from rhetoric to work and make things happen for our children," Jones said.
He said children should not be met by grief counselors before class.
County Commissioner Bill Proctor proposed FAMU students as mentors for local youth.
Jones said the FAMU president agreed to partner on mentoring and neighborhood renewal.
Small Programs Say Funding Decides Everything
Advocates at the gathering pressed for money, not only promises.
One youth program leader said small nonprofits have run mentoring for decades.
Many have done fatherhood work on minimal budgets for years.
Those groups say they are often overlooked when grants are awarded.
The county Council on the Status of Men and Boys offered a clear example.
A team of just two people has taken 253 referrals since January.
Marcus West of the county Office of Community Partnerships cited real investment too.
Leon County has invested more than 34 million dollars over five years.
That money went into neighborhoods like the 32304 area.
Poverty there fell from 56 percent to 48.7 percent, he said.
Proctor warned that two policy shifts could cut into prevention work.
He said Amendment 3 could cut about 12 billion dollars from local governments.
He said Senate Bill 1134, taking effect January 1, would restrict local funding.
That restriction, he said, would hit programs tied to race or gender.
For Black communities, those are often the programs closest to the need.
A Vigil, and a Test of What Comes Next
The gathering on Perry Street began and ended in prayer.
Reverend Stanley Walker announced a vigil for Thursday at 6 p.m.
Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church will host the community that night.
"They are struggling in their pain," Walker said of the wounded.
"The only answer that we have is that we know God still answers prayer."
Walker said his own grandchildren watched the news and asked him why.
He told the crowd that he had no answer for them.
Pastor Montgomery of St. John Missionary Baptist Church closed in prayer.
He asked for healing, unity and a community that puts people first.
Similar grief has reached other Black campuses this season, as our report on the shooting at Southern University showed.
Homecoming is sacred ground in Black college culture across this country.
It is reunion, pride, family and memory woven into one weekend.
When gunfire invades that space, the wound runs deeper than one night.
Tallahassee leaders have now said the right words in public.
Thursday will bring prayer, and prayer has carried this community before.
What residents will watch next is the work, the funding and the follow through.
Follow continuing coverage at Urban City Podcast as this story develops.
