A Leesburg man was arrested after allegedly firing a gun in his pregnant ex-girlfriend’s direction as she tried to give his wallet back.
A previous partner of 55-year-old Alonzo Leon Penson parked at the Florida Health Lake County WIC Office, located at 1904 Griffin Rd., around 11:35 a.m. Wednesday, according to an arrest report from the Leesburg Police Department.
She was there to meet up with Penson and give his wallet back, since he had left it in her car. She was still sitting inside her vehicle in the back of the parking lot when she spotted Penson standing outside in the grass looking toward her. They then began to argue over multiple issues, the report said.
This led Penson to tell his ex that the child she was currently pregnant with had AIDS. Upset, she said unkind things back to him. She did not want to make things worse and asked that he take the wallet so she could leave, but he refused, the report said.
He would not come up to the vehicle to take the wallet, and she threw it on the ground as she slowly started to drive away. Penson proceeded to pull out a small black .380 caliber handgun, point it at her, then at the ground and shot off one round. He pointed it at her once more before heading into the woods on a green bicycle, the report said.
His ex feared for her life and quickly drove to the front of the parking lot to call the police. She later told officers that she knew he lived in those woods and had used someone else’s phone to set up their meeting. They had last lived together back in 2024, and they had multiple domestic batteries and disturbances involving each other, the report said.
The responding officers surrounded the woods until a homeless woman came out to talk. She knew Penson as the man who lived in the tent next to her, and she had seen him there as she was leaving, the report said.
The officers subsequently apprehended Penson at a homeless camp in the woods with the help of a drone. A search of the nearby area revealed a single spent bullet, the report said.
Penson was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (domestic). He was booked at the Lake County Jail with bond set at $25,000.