A Gainesville woman was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of threatening to cut off a random man’s penis after barricading herself in her home for five hours, Alachua County Sheriff’s Office deputies said.
ASCO responded to reports at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday of a woman at Southwest 20th Avenue’s Regional Transit System bus stop who got out of her car with a knife and threatened to cut a man’s penis off.
The man never met 31-year-old Gabriela Mcleskey before the incident, said Becky Butschner, ASCO spokesperson.
After law enforcement arrived, Mcleskey fled via car to her Pebble Creek Villas apartment, where she barricaded herself around 8:45 a.m.Mcleskey remained in her apartment for nearly five hours afterward, prompting Alachua County’s SWAT team, bomb squad and over a dozen sheriff's vehicles to continually negotiate with her. The woman only went into custody around 1:30 p.m. after law enforcement breached the apartment and made the arrest.
She was arrested on one charge of aggravated assault with a weapon and one charge of fleeing the police. Shortly after, she was transported to Alachua County Jail.
Mcleskey also faces an open domestic battery charge last year over a custody situation, according to an arrest report. Prosecutors dropped her 2022 charge of battery against a law enforcement officer, and she also was charged in 2014 and 2015 for now-closed battery cases.
The scene came as a shock for Pebble Creek Villas residents. Quinn McNairy, a 22-year-old Santa Fe zoology major and local resident, and their dog Hobbes waited hours to return to their apartment near Mcleskey after arriving to see the area blocked off.
They said this crime was the first they’ve heard of in the area since moving in August.
“I feel like it’s just going to be a one-off situation,” McNairy said. “I don’t think things like this are going to keep happening in this neighborhood specifically.”
Information about Mcleskey’s first court appearance will be available tomorrow; any potential bond will be set at that hearing.
Contact Aidan Bush at abush@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @aidandisto.
Aidan Bush is a third-year journalism major and the Spring 2024 Engagement Managing Editor of The Alligator. In his free time, he likes to listen to music and go kayaking.
