A jury has rendered a verdict in the case of an intoxicated guest who shot at police at the Brownwood Hotel & Spa.
A Sumter County jury last week found 56-year-old Gerald Wayne Mills Jr. guilty in connection with the Sept. 8, 2020 shooting at the hotel in The Villages. He was found guilty of multiple charges of aggravated assault. He continues to be held without bond at the Sumter County Detention Center. A sentencing date has not been announced.
Wildwood police were dispatched to the multi-story hotel located on State Road 44 after Mills barricaded himself in Room 301. When police officers knocked on the door, Mills demanded they slip their identification under the door. The officers held identification up to the peep hole on the door, but Mills refused to let them in. He “loudly” ordered police to “back up” and then fired two shots through the door. The bullets nearly struck the officers and an employee of the hotel. Mills then fired three shots through the window of his room and used a hotel chair to finish breaking out the glass. He jumped out the window and landed on the second floor roof. He tossed his weapon onto the ground-level courtyard and turned himself into police.
A six-pack of beer was found in the hotel room and he admitted he had been drinking.
Mills had been arrested May 4, 2020 on a drunk driving charge. He was also arrested in 2018 at the Burger King on State Road 44 in Wildwood.
