Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Aaron James McRae, Jr., 20, has been charged with armed robbery and tampering with evidence in connection with a June 29 shooting at Madison Cove Apartments. 18-year-old Makhai Carter was previously arrested and charged with five felonies in the same case, including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

At about 4 a.m. on June 29, Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to reports of shots fired at Madison Cove Apartments (5500 SW Archer Road). Deputies found ten .40 caliber shell casings in front of building I and several bullet holes in the walls and doors of one apartment in that building. Several bullets reportedly traveled through the door and hit walls and other objects inside the apartment.

Deputies learned that there had been a small party in a nearby apartment, and witnesses said there had been some sort of disturbance inside the apartment.

Through follow-up interviews with people at the party, a deputy located one of the victims, who reportedly said Carter and a juvenile came to the apartment with guns, locked the front door, demanded that the victim give them money, and took a gun from his friend.

The first victim said he did not have cash, so the two suspects told him to send money to their Cash App; he said he had $140 in his Cash App account, and they made him send the money, but he was able to quickly turn off his cellular data so that the transaction did not go through.

The first victim said his friend ran out of the apartment and yelled that they had been robbed, but someone in the parking lot shot at Carter and Carter shot back. The two suspects reportedly got into a car and left.

In a post-Miranda interview at the jail, Carter reportedly said that after the incident, he had left the area in a gray Dodge Challenger and finally said the Challenger had been driven by someone he knows as “Osama.” He said Osama drove him to a lake, where he tossed his gun into the water because he had shot the gun and was afraid law enforcement would be able to connect him with the gun.

On August 9, an Alachua County Sheriff’s Detective reviewed a jail phone call that appeared to be from Carter to McRae, using another inmate’s PIN. The other inmate reportedly knows McRae personally and called him almost daily. The detective reviewed other calls and reportedly heard McRae refer to himself as “Osama”; he said law enforcement would be looking for him, but they would not be able to figure out who “Osama” was.

Detectives also learned that a close relative of McRae’s has a gray Dodge Challenger; traffic cameras place that vehicle in the area of Madison Cove at the time of the incident.

The detective reported that the other inmate had called McRae on the date of the Madison Cove shooting, and McRae had talked about both Carter and the juvenile: “They showed me they were real last night. So much sh** happened.” McRae then reportedly named the first victim and his friend and said “we already had a little plot out” because the first victim’s friend had been talking about them. He continued, “I was like alright, we got something for [you].”

Carter reportedly said on the phone that they had lured the victims to Madison Cove to smoke; the juvenile went into the apartment, and he and Carter sat in the parking lot, “scoping them out.” He said that when the first victim and his friend went inside the apartment, he and Carter went in right behind them. He didn’t say what happened inside the apartment but said they walked out with two guns.

McRae has been charged with armed robbery and tampering with evidence. He has no criminal convictions; Judge Kristine Van Vorst ordered him held without bail, pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s office to hold him without bail until trial.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.