Jelisa Hudson was on her way out the door when she heard five gunshots and saw a man with a bullet hole in the center of his head.
“It was a sad thing to see,” Hudson said. “It was a very sad thing to see.”
Tallahassee police said the man was critically injured Oct. 28 in a shooting at a Tallahassee apartment complex, continuing a bloody stretch of gun violence that has rocked the capital city over the past several days.
Officers responded around 9:59 a.m. to a shooting at Magnolia Terrace Apartments, across from the south end of the Capital City Country Club on Magnolia Drive, according to TPD spokesperson Alicia Hill.
Scenes from Magnolia Terrace shooting
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The Tallahassee Police Department investigates a shooting at Magnolia Terrace Apartments, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. A victim was transported to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. (Alicia Devine/Tallahassee Democrat)
One person was shot multiple times and suffered life-threatening injuries, Hill told the Tallahassee Democrat.
The circumstances surrounding the shooting were unclear shortly after police arrived, including whether the gunfire occurred inside or outside the apartment complex.
But Hudson told the Tallahassee Democrat that she saw a car pull up, fire the shots and speed off. When she turned around, she saw the victim on the ground laying next to a scooter.
“It happened so fast,” she said, pointing to a spot in the pavement still stained with blood. “There were no screams, no yelling, no nothing. No fight, no nothing, it was just pow, pow, pow, pow, pow.”
Hill said the investigation remains open and active, and she couldn’t confirm the witness’s account.
The latest gunfire comes after a succession of shootings across Tallahassee in recent days. The frequent gunfire has Hudson questioning whether law enforcement’s surveillance cameras, like Flock, should have been turned off.
One person was injured early Tuesday in an accidental shooting at the West 10 student apartments on West Tennessee Street.
Tallahassee Police Department in action at crime scenes, crashes
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The Tallahassee Police Department investigates a mass shooting that occurred overnight at the Parkway Center shopping plaza Sunday, May 12, 2024. (Alicia Devine/Tallahassee Democrat)
A day earlier, an adult man suffered a gunshot wound that was not considered life-threatening after police were called to the 1000 block of Bronough Street shortly after 6:30 a.m. Monday.
The violence followed the mass shooting near Florida A&M University’s Bragg Memorial Stadium over homecoming weekend. Eleven people were shot and injured, and police have charged a 15-year-old suspect with attempted homicide.
On Sunday evening, a man was wounded in the parking lot of a Walgreens in northeast Tallahassee. That shooting was later classified as a “Stand Your Ground” case.
“There’s so much going on with this homecoming stuff, and it’s just like, this again?” Hudson said of the most recent shooting. “This is crazy.”
Hudson said she’s scared and ready to move after only being in her apartment three years: “My kids won’t be going to the (county) fair this year. That’s how sad and scared I am just to see all this going on.”
As a mother of teenagers, Hudson said parents need to be paying attention, going into their kids’ rooms and getting active in their lives to make sure they know what’s going on.
Having the Flock cameras turned back on would also help, she said, adding that license plate readers are needed for solving these crimes instead of leaving law enforcement to depend on social media and false rumors.
“I feel like those (cameras) are something we need here to lower this crime rate,” she said.
So far this year, 13 people have been killed and 47 have been injured in at least 51 serious shootings in the capital city and Leon County, according to a Tallahassee Democrat analysis of gun violence that tracks incidents involving injury, death or a clear risk of serious harm.
The recent burst of gunfire comes amid what otherwise has been a relatively quieter period for shootings in Tallahassee and Leon County. Tallahassee.com’s shooting database recorded 65 shootings in 2024 and 60 in 2025, a year when both shootings and homicides declined, in line with national trends.
Both TPD Chief Lawrence Revell and LCSO Sheriff Walt McNeil have attributed success to their agencies’ partnerships with each other and additional state and federal law enforcement agencies for the region’s violent crimes task force.
This latest shooting remains under investigation, and Hudson said she’s praying he makes it. “I’m just praying for the victim that God prays for him and heals him and he comes out of this,” Hudson said.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
How to help
Detectives ask anyone who may have witnessed the incident but did not speak with an officer on scene to please call 850-891-4200. They may also remain anonymous by calling Crime Solvers at 850-574-TIPS.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Shooting: Man fights for his life amid wave of Tallahassee gun violence