The Gainesville Police Department (GPD) released the identity of the homicide victim from Tuesday night while the Volusia Sheriff’s Office reported that a body washed up on the beach is believed to be the shooting suspect, Xavion Perry III, 31.

GPD said Brooke Elizabeth Smith, 23, was the victim. GPD said she and Perry may have been dating, and GPD Spokesperson Art Forgey said the department believes Smith was ending the relationship or distancing herself from Perry when the violence took place.

The incident happened at Creeks Edge Condos just northwest of Gainesville High School. Perry fled the area as officers arrived after calls of gunshots. The officers started lifesaving efforts on Smith, but she died from her gunshot wounds.

Perry’s vehicle was spotted later Tuesday night by the Daytona Beach Police Department, which started a pursuit along with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office (VCSO).

VCSO reported that the driver bailed from the vehicle and fled toward the Main Street Pier. Forgey said Thursday morning that officers thought he had jumped onto the beach and run. But Wednesday morning a body washed onto the beach in the 3600 block of Ocean Shore Boulevard in Ormond Beach, about 12 miles north of the pier.

Forgey said markings on the body match known markings of Perry, but law enforcement is still waiting for official confirmation.

GPD reports that Perry is originally from North Carolina and has a criminal history of grand theft, domestic violence and resisting arrest.

Smith’s death came just days after GPD Chief Nelson Moya told the City Commission that domestic and dating violence had risen to be one of the top five priorities for 2026—along with violent crime, traffic safety, homeless outreach efforts and recruiting police officers.

Moya said he reviewed the data for domestic violence after prompting from a group of pastors and got concerned.

“What I see is just an ongoing, steady flow of familial violence, also known as domestic violence or dating violence,” he said.

The domestic violence numbers have remained flat even as homicides and shots fired have fallen over the last three years.

At this time in 2025, Gainesville had three homicides, but Moya noted the uptick to six homicides so far in 2026—now seven with Smith’s death. Shots fired reached 170 in 2022 before coming down each year to 64 in 2025 and 11 in the first quarter of 2026.

Mayor Harvey Ward spoke with Mainstreet during a media availability on Friday, May 22. He said the gun violence numbers, while lower, should still shock residents.

“I don’t want people thinking about how big the numbers used to be,” Ward said. “I want people to be shocked when somebody is murdered in this community. It should be the kind of thing that gets headlines. Sure, it’d be great if it never happened and we never had those headlines, but I don’t want our community to ever be numb to the loss of life.”

He said tackling violent crime and gun violence over the past few years has involved throwing all departments into the work. The city declared gun violence a public health crisis in 2023.

Ward added that while numbers overall have lowered, personal violence (like domestic violence) remained unchanged in the last two years.

Moya touched on how difficult domestic violence is to handle.

“It’s a difficult thing because now we’re talking about identifying and reducing violence in the home, and how do we mitigate those factors that result in violence inside of one’s most private place,” Moya said.

Ward said he, fellow commissions and the chief all gravitated toward domestic violence as the next focus area, with plans to meet with local nonprofits and other agencies working in the space.

“If you are worried about someone that you’re living with harming you or someone else in your home, you don’t have to bear that yourself,” Ward said. “There are resources; we can help you find those resources. There are professionals who can walk you through that process and get you help and get the person you’re afraid of help.”

Ward also said local crime needs to be grounded in reality. He said Gainesville is a safe community, with a per capital violent crime rate lower than peer cities like Tallahassee.

Gainesville is not facing “some horrible gang-related sort of thing that you see on TV,” he said. Of the 2026 homicides, five came on two separate days and half involved domestic violence.

“This is a safe community,” Ward said. “It doesn’t mean there are not dangers in this community. There are dangers in every community. I want people to put it all in perspective, first with the numbers, and then with the individual circumstances of the murders this year.”