Deputies are searching for a man who ran away after reportedly breaking into a southwest Gainesville apartment Wednesday evening with another man whom the apartment resident shot dead.
Just before 6 p.m., Alachua County Sheriff’s deputies received several calls from residents of the The Grove Villas, located at 6400 SW 20th Ave., reporting gunshots, said sheriff’s office spokeswoman Sgt. Becky Butscher.
Deputies responded to the complex where they learned that two masked men, both believed to be armed, broke into Apartment 21. At the time, a man and a woman were in the apartment. The male resident shot and killed one of the robbers, identified as Taylor William Killingsworth, 23. The other stripped his clothing and ran away, Butscher said.
As of press time, deputies had not yet found the man who fled. Butscher described him as a black male with a skinny build who is about 6-feet, 2-inches tall.
The apartment complex is gated, but Wednesday evening, the entrance gate stayed open as sheriffs’ cars drove in and out.
Resident Greg Jones, 26, said the gate usually closes after 5:30 p.m., about 20 minutes before the robbers showed up at Apartment 21.
Jones said he has lived at the complex for only a month but described it as “just a quiet community.”
The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information should call the sheriff’s office at 352-955-1818.
“Obviously we want to get to the second guy,” Butscher said. “He’s the missing link.”
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 1/15/2015 under the headline “One dead, one at large after attempted robbery"]
