[PHOTO CREDIT: Lake County Sheriff’s Office]
[Original Publish Date: 07/06/20]
LEESBURG, Florida — A man with “very distinct tattoos on his face” was picked up on a warrant for numerous charges stemming from his involvement in a shooting that left an innocent man critically injured last month.
Alex Joseph Gagne, 24, of Tavares is accused of driving a car involved in a gun battle with another car near Griffin Road and Tuskegee Street in Leesburg on June 15.
According to a probable cause affidavit, video surveillance from multiple businesses show Jasmic Tyrone Holden, 30, pull into the parking lot with Gagne as a passenger and go into Family Discount Mart, 2201 Griffin Road, Leesburg and purchase cigarettes shortly after noon June 15. While he is buying the cigarettes, Gagne moves from the passenger seat to the driver’s seat. Holden walks outside and begins speaking with Gagne, who is driving a white Toyota Camry; a silver sedan drives south on Tuskegee Street and Holden has an altercation with the occupants.
The silver sedan drives south on Tuskegee street and stops just south of the camera view, according to the affidavit. The group continues to argue, and eight shots are fired from the sedan, two shots striking an innocent man driving down Griffin Road in his work truck. The victim pulls into the fire department and he is later found to have two gunshot wounds, one in his right shoulder and one to his neck that shattered his fifth vertebrae and nicked his carotid artery, according to the affidavit. The victim’s current condition is unknown.
Holden then walks around the parking lot and gets into the car with Gagne and fires three shots as Gagne exits the parking lot. There were approximately 40 seconds between the two sets of shots, “well after the altercation appeared to be over,” the affidavit states.
Holden was charged June 18 with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, shooting into an occupied vehicle and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. When police attempted to apprehend him on the charges from the shooting, he fled in the same Camry he and Gagne were in the day of the shooting. He picked up additional charges of fleeing and eluding, driving without a license, resisting arrest and attaching tag not assigned. He is being held on $507,000 bond. Gagne was charged with principle to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, principle to shooting into an occupied vehicle, driving with a suspended license and reckless driving. His bond on his current charges is $420,000 and his bond was revoked on a prior charge from earlier this year.
Police are still trying to identify the occupants of the silver sedan involved in the shooting.
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Our Editor-in-Chief, Marilyn M. Aciego, began writing for Lake Legal News in 2010. Born and raised in Lake County, she is a graduate of Umatilla High School and Lake-Sumter State College. She started her journalism career at LSSC, where she was editor of both student publications, The Angler and The Odyssey. Her professional career began at the Daily Commercial in 2004 where she covered cops and courts the majority of her time there until she left in 2009. Currently, along with being Editor-in-Chief of Lake Legal News, she is the Florida bureau chief for an international media organization. She has made more than two dozen appearances on live national television, including Nancy Grace and the Greta Van Susteren show, along with her appearance on Evil Twins. Contact her with breaking news, tips, and feedback by sending an e-mail to 352Tips@gmail.com. You can also contact us on our Facebook page — and make sure you “Like” and “Follow us” there. [PHOTO CREDIT: Bonnie Whicher]
