The attorney for the accused teenage gunman in the Oct. 24 mass shooting outside Florida A&M University’s Bragg Stadium on homecoming night said arrest records that remain sealed in the case show no direct evidence against him.
Mutaqee Akbar, a Tallahassee attorney representing Anthony Rivers III, made the comments during the boy’s first court appearance on Wednesday, Oct. 28, following his arrest on adult charges in the shooting.
Rivers, 15, was arrested the day after the shooting on 11 counts of attempted homicide and possession of a firearm by a delinquent. He was formally charged as an adult Oct. 27 and booked into the Leon County Detention Facility.
Akbar asked for a reasonable bond to be set in the case, though Leon County Judge LaShawn Donald said she would wait for Leon Circuit Judge Lee Marsh, who was assigned the case, to make that decision.
Scenes from the morning after the mass shooting on Perry Street
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The Tallahassee Police Department work the scene of a mass shooting that took place on Perry Street the night prior, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. During the tragic event, 11 people were shot — five have been released from the hospital as of the morning of Oct. 25. (Alicia Devine/Tallahassee Democrat)
“Just reading through the probable cause affidavit, I mean it’s all based on I guess like anonymous statements from what I can tell and not any direct evidence,” Akbar said.
Donald asked the defense whether there were any direct probable cause challenges, but Akbar said he would reserve his arguments for the pretrial detention hearing.
Assistant State Attorney Doug Hall said the state will be filing a motion for pretrial detention, saying Rivers had a “rather significant history” of criminal charges as a juvenile.
Exclusive: Teen arrested after Tallahassee mass shooting, also linked to mall gunfire
Hall asked for $15,000 bond on the firearm charge, though Donald opted to set that at $10,000. He also asked that he have no contact with any of the victims, none of whom were the “intended targets” of the shooting, according to police, or any witnesses.
Though Rivers appeared via Zoom from the county jail, his family was in the courtroom. Several victims or their family members were also on the Zoom call. The judge asked whether any of them wanted to speak, but no one did.
Anthony Rivers III, a 15-year-old Tallahassee boy, was arrested in connection with the Oct. 24 mass shooting on Perry Street following the Florida A&M University homecoming football game at Bragg Stadium. Eleven people were injured in the gunfire.
“What a surprise, no one talked,” someone said on the Zoom call who couldn’t immediately be identified.
Rivers and two other teens were arrested in connection with a Sept. 5 shooting inside a Governor’s Square Mall parking garage. No one was injured in the incident, which caused panic and forced the mall to go into lock-down mode.
Court records say Rivers was wearing a GPS ankle monitor at the time of the mall shooting, which placed him at the scene of the crime.
He and two others, including Rondrick Troupe, 19, were arrested later that day in connection with the shooting after police found them sitting in a vehicle parked outside Columbia Gardens on Country Club Drive.
Police found a gallon-sized vacuum-sealed plastic bag of marijuana, along with a backpack on the floorboard with a black Glock 44 handgun. The gun had an illegal “switch” attached to the rear slide allowing it to be “fired fully automatically,” according to Troupe’s arrest report.
Troupe, who was seen wearing the black backpack earlier, was arrested on charges of possession of a machine gun and possession of a controlled substance and paraphernalia.
Marvin Gilkes, 16, was arrested on charges of firing a weapon into a building, possession of a firearm by a delinquent and violation of probation, according to court records. He was rearrested Oct. 1 as an adult and booked into the county jail, though he was released on bond on conditions that he have no contact with his co-defendants or possess guns or weapons.
During his first court appearance, County Judge Stefanie Newlin ordered Gilkes to have no contact with witnesses, people who own firearms and “persons of known gang affiliation.” That’s the first known reference to gangs in relation to Rivers and his co-defendants in the mall shooting.
After the Oct. 24 mass shooting, prosecutors filed an emergency motion to revoke his bond. Leon Circuit Judge Stephen Everett granted the motion Oct. 25, and Gilkes was booked once again into the county jail.
“On Oct. 24-25, 2026, he was observed by law enforcement to be in the company of AR, also known as Anthony Richards III,” State Attorney Jack Campbell wrote in the motion. The Democrat could not immediately confirm with Campbell whether he meant to refer to Rivers rather than “Richards.”
The mass shooting, one of the worst in Tallahassee’s history, happened on Perry and Manatee streets behind Bragg Stadium after the football game. Eleven people were injured from gunshot wounds, one critically. Six of the victims are children, with the youngest 11.
Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Lawyer for alleged Tallahassee mass shooter: No ‘direct evidence’