What started as an argument outside The Pine motel on South Pine Avenue ended with deputies hauling a convicted felon out of a burger restaurant Friday afternoon.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office said 32-year-old Garry Donnell Wallace became aggressive with a woman he had just met when she refused his advances. The woman told deputies Wallace pulled a black handgun from his pocket, threatened to kill both her and her daughter, and then waved the gun in the air. Surveillance footage from the motel later confirmed her story, showing Wallace in a blue hoodie and brown pants pulling the firearm while the mother and child stood nearby.
The woman’s daughter also told deputies she saw the gun and feared for her life. Both said they believed Wallace might shoot them or anyone around them.
Deputies traced Wallace to his job at Mooyah Burgers on Fort King Street, where they arrested him without incident. After being read his rights, Wallace admitted to pulling the gun, saying he wanted the victim to “know what he was about.” He claimed he didn’t point the weapon directly at anyone but acknowledged waving it upward.
Investigators said Wallace refused to give up the location of the gun, which remains unsecured. Records show Wallace has prior felony convictions in Miami-Dade and Marion counties, including weapons and fraud charges.
Wallace was booked into the Marion County Jail on a $5,000 bond for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
