Gainesville Police is investigating the reports of shots fired Tuesday night at a house across from Littlewood Elementary School.
No one was hurt, but GPD spokesman Officer Ben Tobias said officers in the zone are keeping an extra eye on the area.
“The school resource officer is very much aware of the incident,” Tobias said.
Late Tuesday, two cars showed up across the street from a house located in the 3400 block of Northwest Eighth Avenue, Tobias wrote in an email.
Eight people got out of the cars and started yelling at each other. The argument stemmed from Facebook comments, Tobias said.
The mother who lives in the house sent her children inside. While on the phone with 911, the mother said she heard gunshots as the cars drove across her yard.
An officer later stopped one of the cars in the 3400 block of Northwest Sixth Street.
All the occupants in the car said they were the ones shot at, Tobias said. Damage to a taillight looked like it could’ve been a bullet hole, but it is not certain if it was caused by a bullet.
Officers didn’t find any shell casings, bullet holes or weapons at the scene or in the car.
At the house Tuesday evening, trash was scattered on the curb from overturned trash cans as a result of the shots. Latosha Fayson, mother of the seven children who live with her in the house, stood outside wearing gray sweatpants, a hoodie and a beanie.
Fayson, 36, explained that her son, 17-year-old Iman Johnson, had recently ended a relationship with a girl who went to school with him at Gainesville High School.
Johnson said Wednesday he didn’t believe the group was trying to kill anyone, but the shooting served as another threat on top of the ones he received at school and on social media. He’s staying home from school for a few days, he said, but he plans to return soon.
“It’s too much,” Johnson said.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 3/20/2014 under the headline "Teen breakup spurs shots fired near elementary school"]
