On a Tuesday night in late May, emergency responders were called to the Creeks Edge Condos in Gainesville, Florida. They found Brooke Smith, 24, with a gunshot wound. She was declared dead at the scene.
Smith was a nursing student at the University of Florida, months away from completing her bachelor’s degree. She had been scheduled to graduate in August.
Gainesville police identified her boyfriend, Xavion Perry, 31, as the suspect. Investigators said Smith had been attempting to end the relationship in the period leading up to the shooting, and that a confrontation between the two escalated into the violence that killed her.
The pursuit and what followed
After the shooting, Perry fled the area. He was later spotted near Daytona Beach, where law enforcement initiated a pursuit. The chase ended when Perry abandoned his vehicle, ran onto a pier, and jumped into the water. A body later recovered along the shoreline was confirmed to be his…