Investigators say Alanda Cuffee’s mother watched the fatal shooting after a brief exchange in the kitchen.
ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. — The key witness in a fatal Escambia County shooting was the victim’s mother, who told deputies her husband shot her daughter after a short kitchen exchange over manners, according to investigators.
Authorities charged James Pelzer, 64, with second-degree murder after deputies found Alanda Cuffee, 39, dead inside a home on Gulf Breeze Avenue on April 19. The arrest report places Yvonne Pelzer at the center of the case, not as a suspect, but as the person who saw the moments before, during and after the shooting that killed her daughter.
Yvonne Pelzer told deputies she had been in the kitchen with Cuffee when James Pelzer entered and tried to walk around her daughter. In the tight space, the mother told Cuffee to move out of the way. Cuffee’s reply became the final exchange investigators quoted in the report: “Well, Mama, he could say excuse me.” Deputies said James Pelzer said nothing in response. The mother told investigators he walked away from the kitchen, went to the bedroom and came back carrying a short black handgun. She said he fired about four to five times at Cuffee. There was no public report that Cuffee had threatened him, struck him or held a weapon.
The shooting was reported around 10:30 a.m. at a home in the 2500 block of Gulf Breeze Avenue. When deputies arrived, Pelzer was already outside. He surrendered without incident and soon made a statement that investigators included in the case file. “I messed up. I messed up bad,” he said, according to deputies. He also told officers where the gun could be found. Deputies later recovered the firearm on top of a Bible near the front door. Inside the residence, first responders found Cuffee on the floor, unresponsive and bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The mother’s account did not end with the shots. Investigators said Yvonne Pelzer began praying out loud over her daughter after Cuffee fell. James Pelzer told her to “be quiet,” according to the arrest report. That detail became one of the clearest signs in the file of the immediate aftermath inside the home. Authorities also recorded what Yvonne Pelzer said about earlier behavior. She told deputies her husband had a history of anger issues and had threatened to use his gun during miscellaneous incidents. At the same time, she said he had not been physically violent toward her or Cuffee before the shooting and had not directly threatened to use the gun on them.
Sheriff Chip Simmons later described the dispute as one that began with ordinary movement inside the house. He said it centered on whether people could pass each other in the kitchen without bumping into one another and on the request that Pelzer say “excuse me.” His public summary tracked the arrest report’s description of a brief conflict that ended in gunfire. The sheriff said Pelzer retrieved a revolver from his room and fired four to five shots. Investigators have not released all forensic findings, and the full sequence will likely be tested through court filings, witness testimony and any further evidence gathered by detectives.
Cuffee’s death was confirmed by family members, who identified her publicly. A friend told local reporters that Cuffee was “selfless” and loved her mother, friends and family. Those comments gave the public one of the few early views of Cuffee beyond the case file. The arrest report, by contrast, described her last moments in factual police language: a kitchen, a request to move, a statement about “excuse me,” a trip to the bedroom and repeated gunfire. The combination of the two accounts has shaped how the case has been understood in Escambia County.
Pelzer was booked into the Escambia County Jail and held without bond. The charge against him is second-degree murder, a serious felony that applies when authorities allege a killing was done by an act dangerous to another person and showing a depraved mind, but without a claim of preplanned intent. After the initial statements to deputies, Pelzer declined to continue speaking and requested an attorney, according to reports. His public defender did not issue an immediate public explanation in the first coverage of the case.
The home’s location near Gulf Beach Highway added a local marker to a case built mostly on witness words and physical evidence. Deputies said they had the 911 call, Pelzer’s reported admission that he had “messed up,” the mother’s detailed account, the body inside the home and the recovered firearm. Investigators did not describe a search for another suspect. They also did not report that anyone else was injured. For prosecutors, Yvonne Pelzer’s testimony could become central because she described both the motive claimed by authorities and the shooting itself.
The next steps are expected to move through the criminal court system, including formal filings, defense responses and possible hearings on evidence. Pelzer’s court appearance was listed for May 8, and he remained jailed without bond after the arrest. The case stood as a homicide investigation built around one mother’s account of losing her daughter inside her own kitchen.
Author note: Last updated May 10, 2026.