Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Damian Jacques Brown, 32, who has been in the Alachua County Jail since March 2024, has been identified as the suspect who robbed and shot a woman who was walking her dog in the Depot Park area in January 2024.

At about 7:45 a.m. on January 24, 2024, the victim was walking her dog in the 100 block of SE 10th Place when a man held her at gunpoint, took her bag and phone, and then shot her before fleeing. The victim told the responding Gainesville Police Department (GPD) officer that the man had approached her several times during her walk before sneaking up behind her and putting a gun to her head. The victim emphasized that the man shot her after robbing her and said he “did not want [her] to live.”

GPD published a still image from surveillance video of the suspect on a bicycle on its social media pages.

The shell casing recovered at the scene reportedly matched a shell casing from a shooting on February 14, 2024, at Sweetwater Square and a stolen Beretta handgun that was reportedly found on Brown when he was arrested on March 22, 2024.

The victim was unable to identify Brown in a photo line-up administered on March 5, 2024; she said Brown’s photo resembled the shooter, but she thought he was too old.

Other witnesses reportedly identified Brown as the shooter on February 14, tying Brown to the gun used in the January 2024 case, and the owner of the Beretta told a detective he believed Brown had stolen it. A witness in another case involving Brown reportedly told a detective that she thought the man in the publicized still image (shown above) was Brown.

Brown has been in custody since March 22, 2024, and charges of attempted homicide, armed robbery, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon have been added to his previous charges of violating probation, two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and firing a weapon on residential property. In October 2024, Brown was sentenced to nine years in federal prison for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

On top of the federal conviction, Brown has juvenile convictions between 2002 and 2009, five adult felony convictions (one violent), and four adult misdemeanor convictions (none violent); he has served three state prison sentences, with his most recent release in September 2023. He is a designated Violent Felony Offender of Special Concern, according to court documents. He is being held without bail pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s office to hold him without bail until trial, but he would not be eligible to post bail until the federal sentence has been served.

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.