The man accused of shooting a woman to death inside the Silver Springs Wal-Mart store this past Saturday has died.
David Perry Johnson, 54, had been in an Ocala hospital since he shot himself Saturday following the shooting of 30-year-old Carli Cronin inside the Wal-Mart on E Silver Springs Boulevard. Ocala Police say Johnson shot her several times and then fled on a bicycle to his nearby residence in the 6000 block of NE 35th Street.
Officers and SWAT team members surrounded the home a short time later and found Johnson suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was transported to a local hospital and police announced late Saturday night that he wasn’t expected to survive. He had been on a ventilator but had no brain activity and was pronounced dead Monday at 6:13 p.m. after being taken off life support, Ocala Police say.
The shooting incident started as a domestic argument in the Wal-Mart’s garden center area. Once inside the store, Cronin screamed for help and Wal-Mart personnel attempted to intervene and called 911. That’s when policed and witnesses say Johnson shot Cronin and fled from the store.
Paramedics from Ocala Fire Rescue and Marion County Fire Rescue attempted to perform lifesaving measures on Cronin but she was later pronounced dead at Ocala Regional Medical Center.
Cronin, who was originally from Key West, had studied at Florida Keys Community College and in 2013 started at the Pinnacle Career Institute. She had been arrested twice this year and held in the Marion County Jail both times.
On May 25, she was arrested and charged with smuggling contraband into a detention facility, possession of heroin, possession of marijuana not more than 20 grams, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a weapon or ammunition by a convicted felon. And on Oct. 2 she was arrested on a bench warrant for violating her probation on the earlier charges. Those charges were dismissed last Monday and she was released on her own recognizance.
Johnson also was no stranger to the legal system. He had been in prison five times since December 1987, with his last release coming on Dec. 1, 2013 after serving a little more than three years, Florida Department of Corrections records show.
Johnson also had been held in the Marion County jail five times since the earlier 1990s. His latest arrest came in August 2010 when he was charged with three parole violations for possession of cocaine, carjacking and attempted strong-armed robbery. In his earlier arrests, Johnson faced charges of:
- Burglary of a structure,
- Possession of stolen property,
- Two counts of violation of probation or community control,
- Two counts of armed burglary,
- Intimidation/resisting arrest without violence,
- Selling a controlled substance,
- Two counts of aggravated assault,
- Carjacking,
- Two counts of weapons possession by a convicted felon,
- Kidnapping/false imprisonment,
- Two counts of armed robbery,
- Robbery, and
- Displaying/using a weapon.
Not surprisingly, the fact that Saturday’s shooting took place inside a department store rocked the Central Florida area. Some who were in the store at the time of the incident left comments on the Ocala Police Department’s Facebook page, which as of Tuesday night contained 317 posts and the item about the shooting had been shared 1,024 times.
Ocala resident Pat Kaspar Tevlin said she was in the Wal-Mart Garden Center when the shooting took place. She said employees yelled that an active shooter was in the store and told customers to get out of the building.
“I probably ran right past the shooter,” she wrote. “It was the scariest thing I (have) ever been involved in. Too close for comfort.”
Kimberly Pompey Wilkerson, of Ocala, said she was just leaving the Wal-Mart when the shooting happened.
“In 10 seconds people came flooding out,” she wrote. “I had gone in through the garden center to shop and return items but came out through the center doors.”
Rita Miller offered prayers for those who were in the store at the time of the shooting.
“It is so traumatic and you feel helpless to aid the woman crying out for help,” she said. “So sad and disturbing!”