Laquan Johnson was cleaning her apartment when she heard the gunshot.
Soon after, she heard screams so loud they popped her eardrums. Then, knocks from her neighbor’s cousin.
“Call the police,” the woman said.
“What’s wrong?” Johnson, 37, asked.
“My cousin is dead,” she replied.
As the details unfolded, Johnson found out her neighbor, 22-year-old Caitlin A. Albritton, had been shot in the head by a former boyfriend Saturday afternoon at Village Green Apartments. According to police, the man broke into unit G-53 and was waiting for her to come home.
Albritton, six weeks pregnant and the mother of two young children, died at the scene.
A little more than 24 hours later, Gainesville Police arrested Alvin G. Thomas, the reported killer and father of one of Albritton’s children, at the Budget Inn on Southwest 13th Street.
The shooting shook up neighbors. Some are sleepless and fearful. Some want to leave.
Many said Albritton had just moved into the complex a few months earlier. They hadn’t had a chance to get to know her yet.
However, one resident knew her from earlier days, when they attended Westwood Middle School and Gainesville High School together.
Kateece Graham, 22, said Albritton was friendly. When asked if Albritton was popular, Graham let out a sigh and nodded.
“Everyone knew her. She was always there when you needed her,” she said. “You wouldn’t think it would’ve happened to her of all people.”
Many neighbors at the complex live with young children, like 36-year-old Sheena Wooten, who lives in an apartment with six children and a clutter of toys.
About a month ago, the Santa Fe College nursing student warmed up to allowing her children to play outside. Not anymore though, she said. In fact, she walks to her mailbox around her building to avoid the more direct route that passes by Albritton’s apartment.
“I am definitely looking for somewhere else to live,” she said as her 2-year-old son crawled around on the living room floor.
Resident Casey Rush said she felt the same way.
On Saturday, she heard the gunshot while she stood outside on her balcony smoking a Newport with a friend.
Rush, 25, and her boyfriend ventured downstairs while her three young children stayed in the apartment. She peeked inside the door, open about halfway, and saw a body. Her eyes traveled up the legs, torso, but didn’t reach the face.
“I didn’t want to see her face,” she said Monday afternoon, flicking cigarette ash over the same balcony.
Meanwhile, her children played inside. One of them, Rush’s 7-year-old daughter, is afraid to sleep.
“It’s too close to home, you know?” she said.
Thomas’ motive is unknown, but police are still investigating. Investigators determined his relationship with Albritton ended fairly recently.
Rush heard from neighbors that Thomas was mad that Albritton didn’t want to be with him anymore.
She recalled hearing the gunshot and then seeing a man leave the apartment with “no emotion on his face.”
“You see stuff like that on TV,” she said. “It just makes you open your eyes and see how real this stuff is.”
A version of this story ran on page 8 on 11/19/2013 under the headline "Neighbors react to Saturday murder with shock, fear, moving plans"
