Man accused of being mass shooter at party near Greenville sues authorities for $3M

A year after he was mistakenly accused of being the gunman in a mass shooting near Greenville, Brandon Gonzales is suing authorities over his arrest.

His lawsuit, filed this week in federal district court, alleges false arrest and imprisonment and malicious prosecution, among other charges, and seeks in excess of $3 million in damages. It names as defendants the Hunt County Sheriff’s Office, Hunt County Sheriff Randy Meeks, the Texas Department of Public Safety, a Texas Ranger who arrested Gonzales and a witness who told authorities he was the shooter.

Hunt County’s civil attorney, Daniel Ray, told the Greenville Herald-Banner that the county doesn’t comment on pending litigation. It was unclear whether any of the other defendants had attorneys.

Gonzales, now 24, was at The Party Venue just outside of Greenville the night of Oct. 26, 2019, where hundreds of people were attending a “Twerk or Treat” party marking nearby Texas A&M University-Commerce’s homecoming weekend.

The party, which was not a school-sanctioned event, took place about 15 miles from the university’s campus, which is about 60 miles northeast of Dallas.

The celebration turned to chaos when someone opened fire with a handgun, killing two young men — Kevin Berry Jr., 23, of Dallas and Byron Craven Jr., 23, of Arlington — and wounding six other people. Several other party-goers, frantic to escape the 8,000-square-foot building that was filled beyond capacity, injured themselves on broken glass as they made their way out windows.

Gonzales — whose only documented run-in with the law to that point was a traffic ticket — was arrested on a capital murder charge two days later at the Greenville car dealership where he worked, and his bail was set at $1 million.

According to the new lawsuit, the Ranger who arrested him told Gonzales he’d make sure he was executed.

An arrest-warrant affidavit said that an unnamed witness had identified Gonzales as the gunman and said he “was intending to kill” because he aimed at victims’ heads.

Gonzales’ relatives immediately decried his arrest, saying an innocent man was behind bars, and he denied being the shooter during a jailhouse interview.

“Whenever the shooting was going on, I was outside in the car, and I have witnesses to that,” he told WFAA-TV (Channel 8).

A Sheriff’s Office spokesman, Sgt. Jeff Haines, said at the time that “we are fully confident that we have the right suspect.”

The evening of Nov. 5, however, authorities said they had new evidence that would likely clear Gonzales of the charge against him, and he was released from custody after spending nine days in the Hunt County jail. The Sheriff’s Office recommended that the Hunt County district attorney drop the case.

At a news conference following his release, Gonzales said it had pained him to be called “the shooter” while he sat in a jail cell.

“It killed me because that’s not my image, that’s not who I am, that’s not who I’ve ever been,” he said.

Attorney Michael Campbell, who along with Andrew Wilkerson is representing Gonzales in the civil case, said at the news conference that the investigation into the shooting had been “shoddy and incomplete.”

“They rushed to judgment when naming Brandon, an innocent man, as a suspect in this case,” he said.

Despite being cleared, Gonzales found that the stigma of been labeled a mass shooter stuck to him. Days after his release, he moved in with his mother near Orlando, Fla., in an attempt to put some distance between himself and an undeserved reputation. His young children remained in Texas with their mothers.

Even there, though, he said people recognized him. The ability to lead a normal life was gone, he said.

“This really, it ruined my life,” he said. “Everything was going great. I got up to go to work every morning. I provided for my kids. Now it’s like, even though I was set free — they finally found out I was innocent — it’s still there.”

Gonzales has continued to struggle finding employment and getting back to normal, the lawsuit says, and he has suffered from anxiety and depression.

Since Gonzales’ release, authorities in Hunt County have made no other arrests related to the shooting. Meeks, who is retiring as sheriff at the end of the year, said in a recent statement that the investigation remains open and that authorities believe the shooting was gang-related.

“With as many people that were in attendance that night, someone knows exactly the identity of the shooter,” he said.