Staff report

Updated with information from the 8th Judicial Circuit

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Kevin Lloyd Dawson, 48, was arrested early this morning after allegedly pushing and threatening to shoot a family member, throwing her phone outside, refusing to let two children and two adults leave his home, and pointing a shotgun at a responding police officer.

At about 9:35 p.m. on June 21, Gainesville Police Department officers responded to Dawson’s home after a family member ran to a neighbor’s house and called for help.

The family member told police that she and Dawson were arguing when Dawson pushed her down onto the couch, grabbed her phone from her hand, and threw the phone outside. She said she tried to get the other four occupants of the home, including two children, outside and away from Dawson, but Dawson brandished a pistol at her and threatened her. She said she feared for her life, ran out of the house, and asked a neighbor to call 911.

When the first officer approached the front of the home, Dawson allegedly walked outside with a shotgun and pointed it at the officer while yelling something unintelligible. Dawson then went back inside.

The mother of the two children in the home called her children after officers arrived, and Dawson allegedly took the device from the children and refused to let them or the two adults leave the home. Officers and the mother of the children reportedly negotiated with Dawson until 10:37 p.m., when Dawson let the four occupants of the house leave. Dawson was arrested at 1:11 a.m.

A search of the home reportedly produced multiple weapons, including a loaded shotgun, a pistol, and a dismantled rifle, along with multiple boxes of ammunition for each gun.

Dawson has been charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, robbery by sudden snatching, four counts of false imprisonment, and battery. He has no criminal convictions; he was charged with stabbing someone with a samurai sword in 2014, but the investigation found that the victim stabbed him first, so the charge was dropped. Judge Susanne Wilson Bullard ordered him held without bail on six of the charges, pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s office to hold him without bail until trial; if the judge denies the motion, bail will be set at that hearing and added to the bail of $52,500 on the other two charges.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.