Authorities still have no explanation why a 28-year-old Tampa man gunned down three women in Manatee County Monday night, including his own mother, before dying in a shootout with deputies at the Georgia state line.
Court records show the suspect had a history of domestic violence against women and had a prior risk protection order that barred him from having a firearm.
Javontee Brice was killed in a shootout with deputies near the Florida-Georgia line on Tuesday after deputies said he killed his mother – 48-year-old Titinysha Scott; cousin, 29-year-old Sacouya Starquez Jonquila, and ex-girlfriend’s partner – Chanel Carter, 31, in three separate shootings in just under an hour.
Brice previously faced charges of domestic battery by strangulation in September 2023 in Manatee County, but the charges were later dropped. He also faced first-degree battery charges in Manatee County in August 2022, where the adjudication was withheld by the judge. Court records list Brice as having a Tampa mailing address.
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In August 2022, a petition for a risk protection order was served to Brice in Manatee County by the Bradenton Police Department. Officers said in the petition that Brice had used or threatened to use weapons against himself or others. He was ordered to surrender all firearms and ammunition in his custody. Brice was also not to have possession of any firearm or ammunition while the order was in effect, until August 2023.
When asked during a press conference about Brice’s prior mental health concerns, Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells said that he’s not sure what kind of issues Brice dealt with in the past, but the agency will be investigating.
“We don’t know motive,” Wells said. “We don’t know what set this man off. We don’t know why he chose to kill his loved ones. We may never know, but we’re going to continue to investigate.”
Prior to the three shootings, Wells said that Brice went to the Palmetto Trace Apartments at 708 2nd Ave. E. to visit his sister and the mother of one of his 12 children. Wells said that Brice told his ex-girlfriend, “I have to kill you.” Brice’s sister was able to calm him down and talk him out of using his weapon. She later told investigators that Brice was acting very strange, and she wasn’t really sure what was going on with him.
He then went to the Motel 6 at 68th Street Circle East in Bradenton at around 9:15 p.m., where Scott, Scott's boyfriend and two children, who were Brice’s sisters, were staying. Shooting witnesses told investigators that Brice apologized to Scott before shooting her.
Following that shooting, he went to the 900 block of 26th Street East, where one of his cousins was at a cookout. Jonquila was getting into her car, Brice shot her at around 9:40 p.m.
Brice then drove to Bradenton in the 4800 block of 51st Street east where another ex-girlfriend lived and shot at Carter, his ex-girlfriend's partner.
MCSO released a statewide “be on the lookout” alert for Brice’s car, and multiple law enforcement agencies assisted in tracking Brice to Hamilton County near the state line. Wells said that Brice was potentially traveling to Georgia to kill another ex-girlfriend.
Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office deputies spotted the car that Brice was driving with a woman in the passenger seat. After the deputies pulled him over, Brice immediately got out of the car and began shooting at the deputies. They returned fire and killed Brice.
Wells wasn’t able to give more details on the standoff with deputies, but he said that the deputies involved were not injured. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will investigate that shooting. The woman in the passenger seat is also being investigated by deputies, and investigators believe she was with Brice during the other three shootings.
While the motive behind the shootings is unclear, Brice alluded to frustrations with people in his life through poems he wrote on his Facebook page. Wells said it seemed Brice had an agenda, knew exactly who he wanted to kill and didn’t have a hard time looking for them.
No information regarding funeral arrangements for the victims was available late Tuesday.
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