Fla. gunman kills father, goes on 13-minute shooting spree wounding 5 before killing himself

Police: Fla. gunman kills father, self; wounds 5

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Friends and family knew Clifford Miller Jr. had a history of mental illness, yet they never imagined the quiet 24-year-old would kill his father, go on a 13-minute shooting spree around his sleepy north Florida neighborhood, then take his own life while parked in a friend’s driveway.

“I don’t know what triggered it. And then to want to take his life. What’s so bad?” said Woodrow Jones, a neighbor, shaking his head while standing near Miller’s home Tuesday.

Miller killed his 52-year-old father, Clifford Miller Sr., before he went on a rampage Monday and wounded five men. He fired multiple rounds from a .38 caliber revolver at each spot, Gainesville police Cpl. Tscharna Senn said. In most of the shootings, police said, he fired the gun while sitting in his truck.

“He did have a relationship with the remaining victims,” Senn said. “Right now, we do not have a motive.”

After killing his father and shooting five others, Miller drove his red pickup truck and stopped in a friend’s driveway. Frederick Wilson, who was once married to Miller’s aunt, lives in the home and heard a gunshot. He emerged to find Miller dead, the gun in his lap.

“There’s blood right there,” Wilson said, pointing to a patch of red in the dirt driveway. “There’s blood and brain matter in my yard. That ain’t right.”

Miller, who previously worked as a dishwasher at a Mexican restaurant in Gainesville, had a lengthy criminal history, court records showed.

When Miller was 19, he was found guilty of cocaine possession and violated probation. When he was about to return to court, he wrote the judge a letter.

“My family and friends are so prowed (sic) of me because I have been working for a year,” he wrote in 2006. “I beg of you to drop the case so I can finish being successful in life.”

Every year since, Miller was charged with either a traffic offense or other crimes. In 2006, he grabbed and spit in the face of an ex-girlfriend and was charged with simple battery. She refused to press charges. In 2007, he was found guilty of breaking into an ex-girlfriend’s house and roughing her up.

In 2009, he assaulted another woman, a friend, but she refused to press charges.

Also in 2009, he was charged with reckless driving, driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol and refusing to sign or accept a traffic citation. In that case, an Alachua County judge declared him incompetent.

As some of the conditions of his release from jail, Miller was required to take medication and undergo psychiatric treatment.

It was unclear what touched off Monday’s shooting spree.

The first 911 call was at 4:03 p.m., followed by several others. The last call was to the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office at 4:16 p.m. That turned out to be the gunman.

The wounded were being treated at Gainesville area hospitals, Senn said.

Among the victims: Cedric Joiner, 36, Lloyd Dunn, 67, Paul Anthony Sr., 43, and Vincent Saller, 43. They are all listed in critical condition. Anthony Mitchell, 44, is in fair condition.

Gainesville, in the north-central part of the state, is home to the University of Florida. There was no link between the school and the shooting, police said.

Ronald Sercey’s home was likely the second stop on Miller’s deadly spree. Sercey said that he arrived home to find a disoriented-looking Miller driving away, and several fearful people in the yard.

Mitchell, Sercey’s uncle, was shot in the arm and Joiner, a friend, was shot in the face. Sercey said Miller had been to his house over the weekend to watch football. While many in the neighborhood knew Miller had a mental illness, they never thought he was capable of murder.

“He fell through the cracks,” said Sercey. “He was just a young man with a mental illness that snapped. And we’ll never know why.”