A 15-Year-Old Is Charged in the FAMU Homecoming Shooting That Hit 11, and Police Say He Was Already Barred From Having a Gun

Tallahassee police have their suspect in Saturday night's mass shooting outside Florida A&M University's homecoming game, and he is 15 years old.

Detectives arrested Anthony Rivers III on Sunday, Police Chief Lawrence Revell announced at a 7 a.m. press conference Monday. After talking with State Attorney Jack Campbell, police charged him with 11 counts of attempted second-degree murder, one for each person hit by gunfire, plus a twelfth charge that tells you more than the rest: possession of a firearm by a delinquent.

The charge that matters

Florida doesn't hand out that charge to every kid caught with a pistol. Under state law, section 790.23, it applies to someone under 24 whom a Florida court has already found to have committed a delinquent act that "would be a felony if committed by an adult." In plain terms, police are saying a court had already put this 15-year-old in the felony column before Saturday night, and the law already said he couldn't touch a gun. Breaking that rule is a second-degree felony by itself.

Police have not said what that earlier case was, and Florida keeps most juvenile records sealed. They also have not said where the gun came from. Those are the two questions every parent in Tallahassee should want answered: who let a teen the system had already flagged walk around a homecoming crowd armed, and how did he get the weapon?

It's like a driver with a suspended license plowing into a crowd. The crash is the headline, but the real failure happened the day he got back behind the wheel.

What police say happened

The shooting broke out just before 8 p.m. near Perry and Manatee streets, steps from Bragg Memorial Stadium, about an hour after FAMU lost its homecoming game to Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Twelve people were hurt. Eleven were shot, and a grandmother of one victim hurt her ankle running from the gunfire. Six of the victims are juveniles, and the youngest is 11.

"Our investigation indicates that a physical altercation occurred before the shots were fired," Revell said. Detectives believe it "stemmed from a dispute between individuals that are known to each other," and "none of the injured victims appear to have been involved as intended targets." In other words, a fight between people who knew each other ended with bullets hitting kids who had nothing to do with it.

Leon County Schools told WCTV that four of its students, at three different schools, were among the injured. By Sunday evening, five victims had been released from the hospital, police said.

In court, an outburst and a no-contact order

Rivers made his first appearance before Leon Circuit Judge Andrew Sheeran on Monday morning. Sheeran ordered him held in secure detention, the Tallahassee Democrat's Jeff Burlew reported from the courtroom.

When the charges were read aloud, a woman court staff identified as Rivers' mother spoke up. "This is a lie," she said, before she was muted, Burlew reported.

The judge told Rivers he is "not to have any contact directly or indirectly with any of the witnesses in this case," and that his calls from the detention center "are going to be monitored on a speakerphone and a log will be kept to ensure that you have no contact with any of the victims or witnesses."

Adult court is next

Campbell plans to charge Rivers as an adult on the attempted homicide counts, according to Burlew. Florida law gives prosecutors that power for 14- and 15-year-olds accused of attempted murder when the state attorney decides "the public interest requires that adult sanctions be considered or imposed." Twelve wounded people, half of them children, is about as clear a public interest as it gets. His arraignment is set for Nov. 16, WCTV reported.

Revell credited the community's tips and cellphone video for the quick arrest and said the case isn't closed. "This remains an active and open investigation," he said. "Additional arrests are possible." He also gave his officers their due: in the first moments, they "rushed towards danger to render aid and protect lives even before the scene was fully secured."

"This arrest is a significant step forward," the chief said, "but our work is far from over." Anyone with information can call the police tip line at 850-891-4610.