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Girl hospitalized after gunshot wound to arm

Authorities say the girl's father, who is accused in the shooting, gave several stories in what they suspect was a domestic dispute.

By JUSTIN GEORGE
Published April 21, 2005

	[Times photo: Stephen J. Coddington]
	A Citrus County sheriff's deputy walks Justin L. Brown, father of 5-year-old Jaonaa Brown, to a waiting patrol car in the parking lot of Citrus Memorial Hospital's emergency room Wednesday. The girl was shot and then driven to the emergency room. Authorities arrested Brown later.

INVERNESS - Sometimes the kids on Russell Avenue play with fireworks, and that's what neighbors thought was happening when sound pierced the silence before 9 a.m. Wednesday.

"I heard a loud shot," Diane Longwill said, "and didn't pay too much attention to it because this neighborhood is strange. That's when I heard a woman scream."

Longwill peered outside. She saw a woman standing in the road outside a red Pontiac Sunfire. A man wearing a backpack was about 60 feet down the road, walking away.

"She's been f------ shot!" the woman screamed hysterically, according to Longwill.

The man turned and threw his hands up. He jumped in the car with the woman and three children inside and drove down Turner Camp Road, eventually arriving at Citrus Memorial Hospital's emergency entrance.

Authorities said Jaonaa Brown, 5, one of the children in the car, had been shot in the left arm. The bullet worked its way down to her wrist.

The shooter was her father, Justin Lennorris Brown, authorities said. He was arrested later Wednesday on charges of possession of a firearm by a felon and shooting into an occupied conveyance or car.

The girl was taken to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg at 11 a.m. She was scheduled to undergo surgery to remove the bullet, Citrus County sheriff's spokeswoman Ronda Hemminger Evan said.

Jaonaa's condition was being withheld at the request of her family, hospital spokeswoman Ann Miller said Wednesday afternoon.

Justin Brown, 25, was booked into the Citrus County jail; bail hadn't been set Wednesday afternoon.

"It's possible other charges could be brought forward. But we're comfortable with the charges he's facing," Evan said. "Right now, it appears it's going to be a domestic dispute, but all the details are still not known."

Citrus Memorial notified law enforcement after the child arrived. Sheriff's officials questioned the father there.

Initially, detectives called the shooting accidental. Brown told them he was putting some belongings, including a handgun, in the car, which is owned by Heather Marie Gagliano, 24 - Jaonaa's mother and Brown's girlfriend. The gun fired from outside the car's trunk by accident, sending a bullet inside, where it struck Jaonaa in a rear passenger seat, according to arrest records.

But he changed his story on a subsequent interview, arrest records show. This time, he told detectives he got into an argument with Gagliano and that she tried to hit him with her car while he was walking on Russell Avenue. He hit the ground and the gun, which had been in his waistband, fired after it fell out.

When detectives told him that was unlikely, Brown said he had pointed the gun at the car after he had jumped up after being hit by the vehicle. The gun went off unintentionally, he claimed.

Brown and Gagliano have two more children together: 7-week-old Jazmine and 2-year-old Janiya. They also were in the car Wednesday, but were unhurt.

It was unclear what the couple and their children were doing on Russell Avenue, which is a few blocks from where Gagliano lives. Arrest records show that Gagliano might have been following Brown after he had left her home.

People on Russell Avenue said they had heard arguing before the shot rang out. Wednesday wasn't the first time they have seen verbal battles between the two.

"She throws him out of the car and then stops," said Russ McClarnon, 41, who lives across from where the shooting occurred, "and he gets backs in."

In 2003, Gagliano asked a Citrus County judge to make Brown pay child support, records show. In May 2004, she sought a domestic violence injunction against him. It was dismissed the next month.

Court records also show that Brown has been arrested on charges of battery, petty theft, driving with a suspended license and marijuana possession. Florida Department of Law Enforcement records show several other arrests, including for eluding police and cocaine distribution.

Brown lives with his mother in Ocala, Evan said. Gagliano lives at 1151 W Widgeon Court in Heron Woods, a neighborhood of identical single-story tract homes and wide streets just a few blocks from the shooting.

A woman at Gagliano's home declined to comment Wednesday. Neighbors said Gagliano moved into the neighborhood about two months ago.

Brown can often be seen visiting the home, they said.

"They seem pretty decent," said Idalia Rodriguez, 27, who lives across the street and thinks she heard the gunshot. "They don't bother anybody, they just come in and come out."

Blocks away, a crime scene photographer placed a yellow "No. 1" marker on a lawn on Russell Avenue, and a detective followed behind him with measurement tape. Neighbors, standing just outside sheriff's patrol cars that served as barricades to guard the crime scene, said they are growing tired of the drugs and disturbances that seem to plague the area.

"I try not to pay attention to too much around here," Longwill said, "because a lot happens around here."

Times staff researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.

Justin George can be reached at 352 860-7309 or jgeorge@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 21, 2005, 01:05:18]