Newly published video captures the shoot between romantic rivals

A newly published video shows the moment a alienated husband fired eight rounds of a pistol on a romantic rival in front of a Gainesville apartment up close and hit his destination into the leg when the shooter's wife called: “Why why Should you do that? “

In the 17-second video, Julius Lee Caldwell, 30, from Lithia Springs, Georgia, fired three shots from about 8 feet in a quick episode, then he ran to his goal and jumped in the air when he fired at least five times . The man was shot into the leg. The truck of a postal company that drove through the parking lot raced away.

Gainesville has struggled for years with a serious and persistent problem of gun power – and the number of residential and trade monitoring cameras has increased – but it is still rare that a shootout, like this, is recorded and publicly seen in 2022.

Above: Video from the ring doorbell camera of a neighbor, the shootout in August 2022 by Julius Lee Caldwell, 30, from Lithia Springs, Georgia, who confronted himself with a romantic rival in front of an apartment in Gainesville. Caldwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison on December 19, 2024 because he was charged with attempted second -degree murder. The public prosecutor censored the victim at the shootout and turned the video after a delay of three months after the public records in Florida. The video continued to edit the video to remove the obscene and footage of Caldwell's discharge of additional rounds after the victim had fallen. (Prosecutor's office of the district of Alachua/Wuft)

In a non-related case, a jury in Gainesville condemned a 26-year-old man in May 2023 because of a second degree murder after a one-day process that contained a recording of the fatal shootout on surveillance cameras of a nearby company. This shooter, Eugene Javon Patrick, was sentenced to life imprisonment after the jurors had observed repetitions of the shootout.

In the apartment, Caldwell, who describes himself as a “Luh Savage” on social media, shoots the victim who was previously in a romantic relationship with Caldwell's estranged wife and shared a child with her. According to court files, Caldwell and the woman were separated and planned to divorce.

During a dispute, Caldwell got a pistol from his alienated wife's apartment. In the video he is aggressively approaching the man who said: “Oh, you will pull a pistol?” And mocked Caldwell to pull the trigger.

The shootout on Monday afternoon in the Harbor Cove Apartments in Northwest Gainesville in August 2022 was captured on the ring doorbell camera of a neighbor and submitted as evidence in this case.

The newly published video was never shown to a jury. Shortly before the court proceedings, Caldwell did not advocate a second degree murder, and judge David P. Kreider sentenced him to 20 years in prison. He expects to be released in August 2042. He had already been in prison for 841 days, to which his case was solved.

In an interview on Tuesday from the State prison in the century, Florida, near Alabama's border, Caldwell said that he did not intend to shoot his rival – even though he went into the apartment to call up his gun, and then the man Flyed outside before he fired eight with him. “It was never my intentions for it,” he said.

In a two -sided, handwritten letter to the judge in a related case in March 2023, Caldwell wrote that the man he shot was “verbally aggressive, so I had my floor to protect my family.” A deputy of a sheriff wrote in Caldwell's arrest report that the two men “were involved in an oral argument in front of the apartment in front of the shootout”. The video introduced as evidence in the case does not show the argument that led to shots.

In his interview from prison and the letter to the judge, Caldwell framed the shootout as defensive, although the prosecutors said that the man he shot was unarmed and there is no records that the shot victim was charged due to a crime in Gainesville.

The public prosecutor initially accused Caldwell of being the first degree of first degree and being a criminal in possession of a weapon. Previously, in 2016 he was guilty of crime in Georgia to crime.

After a delay of three months, the public prosecutor handed over the video according to the law on public records in Florida. In general, most of the evidence collected as part of criminal proceedings are publicly available at the end of the case.

Initially on December 19 -on the same day the judge Caldwell sent in prison -it would be said that it would reject the video without permission from the victim. It quoted guidelines of the Attorney General in Florida, in which he enabled him to hold back records that could be used to “use or harass the victim's victim or family, or to disclose confidential or privileged information about the victim” .

Until then, the prosecutors had already published the name and home address in Georgia of the victim of the shootout in court files, which this week said in a short telephone interview that he did not know that the prosecutors had published the video.

The victim promised to discuss the recordings after looking at the video and then stop calls or texts. He confirmed that he saw the video that a reporter shared with him.

“We laughed well,” he wrote.

Caldwell's estranged wife, who witnessed the shootout, rejected what happened on Wednesday, what happened on this day or what events led to it.

The public prosecutor wiped the shooting victim in the video.