Gunfire in a Tallahassee parking lot leads to arrest of armed couple, complaints of racism
Two Black men who encountered gunfire after dropping off a U-Haul say they were racially profiled. The two people arrested in the shooting deny it.
www.tallahassee.com
Charles McMillon Jr. was dropping off a U-Haul van with his young son and childhood friend Kendrick Clemons on Thursday night when out of nowhere bullets started flying.
They had just parked the van at a U-Haul drop-off spot at the Fountain Plaza strip mall on Apalachee Parkway and were sitting in McMillon’s truck getting ready to go. As he typed in the mileage on a phone app, a gunshot rang out.
They looked back and saw an older couple coming toward them, both pointing guns in their direction. They yelled “Don’t move!” and other commands to surrender.
But McMillon threw his GMC truck in reverse, drove around the van and sped off in a blind panic. They heard more gunfire as they fled.
They managed to escape with their lives — incredibly, a police officer who happened to be in the parking lot intervened after the shooting began. But they’ll never forget their ordeal — the product, they said, of racial profiling by would-be vigilantes.
It turned out the two shooters, Wallace Fountain, 77, and his wife, Beverly Fountain, 72, own the strip mall and were staking it out inside a U-Haul of their own. They said they were having problems with people stealing gas and wanted to scare off any culprits.
But McMillon and Clemons said the Fountains, who are white, never asked why they were there — or even whether they needed any help. They just opened fire.
“They saw three Black people, unarmed, dropping off a U-Haul,” McMillon said. “They got guns, they started shooting. That’s why it’s racially motivated.”
In a brief interview, Beverly Fountain, who retired in 1996 as a longtime secretary for the State Attorney's Office, said the shooting had nothing to do with race. She denied even knowing McMillon or Clemons’ skin color.
“Were they Black?” she asked. “We weren’t going off on that at all. You’ve got vandalism and theft going on at your property. Trying to protect your property — that’s the only issue.”
Tallahassee Police Department officers arrested the Fountains on three counts of aggravated assault without intent to kill. They were found carrying several pistols, including a .357-caliber Magnum and a Glock 19. Officers also found a shotgun in their U-Haul.
McMillon and Clemons want the community to know what happened to them in hopes something like it won't ever happen again. Gee announced during a Tuesday news conference his clients are filing a lawsuit against U-Haul and the shopping center.
“This country is seeing a wave of anti-Black vigilantism,” Charles Gee said. “And what we’re seeing that almost happened (Thursday night) is someone taking the law into their own hands and serving as cop, judge, jury and ultimately executioner.”
Beverly Fountain said she couldn't discuss her case in detail. But she suggested the allegations were over-blown.
“The whole country has gone to hell with all these riots," she said. "One incident was blown out of proportion.”
TPD: Victims' actions 'were normal'
McMillon and Clemons arrived at the U-Haul drop-off around 8:30 or 9 p.m. It was dark outside, but they said they were clearly visible because they parked under an outside light.
The officer in the parking lot said he saw McMillon and Clemons arrive. He noted in his report that the two were not acting suspiciously before the shooting started.
“Based on their interactions, I assumed both parties knew each other and the gentleman driving the GMC was picking up the driver of the U-Haul,” the officer wrote. “Their actions were normal, nothing out of the ordinary.”
Wallace Fountain told police he fired his Glock 19 perhaps four times in the air. Beverly Fountain said she fired her .357 Magnum twice.
McMillon told his son to duck when he heard the first shot. Even as they drove away, the gunfire continued. No one was struck, and no bullet holes were found in their truck.
“It was a life-threatening situation,” McMillon said. “I didn’t even know where I was going. I had my head down and I was making sure my son was covered. And I just pushed the gas to the floor. Didn’t know if I was going to hit something or not.”
McMillon’s son, who is 10 years old, didn’t know what was happening.
“I was just scared,” he said. “I didn’t know what it was. I heard my dad say duck, so that’s what made me think it was a gun.”
McMillon said his son will need counseling to cope with what happened.
“The thing that bothers me most about it was my son experienced that,” he said. “My son was terrified, shaking. My son’s going to be asking questions about this probably for the rest of his life. As he goes into adulthood, what do you do about that?”
Clemons said it later dawned on him how close he came to losing his life.
"I went right home, woke my kids up, kissed all three of my boys," he said. "And I woke up (the next morning) and had a new look at it — I could really not be here right now."
'This could have gone south'
Wallace Fountain said his wife told him she could hear someone siphoning gas in the parking lot, according to police reports. That’s when they got out of their U-Haul and started shooting.
“Wallace stated he fired his Glock 19 in the air, possibly four times,” the arrest report says. “He did not wish to cause harm, only scare the individuals who they suspected to be stealing gasoline.”
The Fountains told officers they never pointed their guns at the three. Both were slow to put down their weapons when ordered by police.
"Both the male and female were not obeying my commands at first," the arrest report says. "However, they eventually placed their firearms on the ground and laid on the ground away from the firearms."
McMillon and Clemons said officers appeared to believe the Fountains’ account over their own. They both said the two should have been arrested on more serious charges of aggravated assault with intent to kill.
They don’t think it’s fair that the Fountains were released from jail so quickly after the incident. During their first court appearance on Friday, Leon County Judge Nina Ashenafi Richardson placed them on pretrial release without requiring a bond.
“If we’re the ones shooting at them, we would still be in jail right now, probably with no bond, probably with intent to kill,” Clemons said. "But they got to walk free."
Assistant state Attorney Doug Hall noted Fountain's former career in the prosecutor's office and said she served "honorably." He said he hadn't talked to her in years and the office didn't need to recuse itself.
Hall told Ashenafi Richardson he was not seeking a high bond for the Fountains, though he did ask that they have no contact with the victims, a standard restriction. Ashenafi ordered pretrial release without a bond.
"Anytime there's a case involving weapons and the discharging, this court is always concerned," she said. "What I'm seeing though in looking at Ms. Fountain's history though is I see no criminal history. I see her belief ... that there was a theft occurring."
Hall noted the large number of firearms found at the scene and asked that they surrender all their weapons to law enforcement, which Ashenafi Richardson ordered.
“This could have gone south very, very quickly,” he said.
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