Staff report
According to a Gainesville Police Department report, a woman contacted an officer around 8:16 p.m. on September 24 and said she had argued with her boyfriend, Thomas, near the 900 block of SW 6th Avenue. She told police she walked away, but Thomas followed her. The confrontation allegedly intensified when Thomas placed his hands around her neck, restricting her breathing.
The woman said Thomas then displayed a closed switchblade and ordered her to comply. Although the knife was not open, she told officers she recognized it as a switchblade because she had given it to him. Fearing for her life, she struck Thomas in self-defense, after which he allegedly began hitting her. Both fell to the ground, where the woman said Thomas continued assaulting her. When she managed to stand, Thomas reportedly ran from the scene.
The officer documented that the woman’s face appeared swollen and covered in blood.
On September 27, another GPD officer encountered Thomas at a shopping plaza near NW 16th Avenue and NW 13th Street. Police said Thomas stiffened his arms, dropped to the ground and kicked or flailed his legs while officers attempted to handcuff him. He was eventually restrained with handcuffs and a rip-hobble device.
Thomas also faces two additional sworn complaints, though he had not been booked on those allegations at the time of the report. In one incident on September 6, he allegedly became angry after being told he could not board an RTS bus. Police said he punched and shattered a bus door window, then struck a cargo window in what appeared to be an attempt to break it. The complaint accuses him of felony criminal damage to property.
Minutes later, an officer allegedly saw Thomas shove a woman from her scooter as she traveled along the sidewalk. The officer said she was not near enough to strike Thomas with the scooter, was not obstructing his way and had not spoken to him. The woman told police she rang the scooter’s “bell” to alert him as she approached, but Thomas deliberately pushed her, sending her onto the pavement. She suffered several scrapes to one leg.
After Thomas was detained, officers tried to move him from an unsafe face-down position in the dirt. Police said he became confrontational, threatened to “kick the sh**” out of the officers and kicked one officer in the arm.
Thomas was taken to a hospital for evaluation, where he allegedly remained combative and spat on another officer. The report did not explain why he was not arrested at that point. Both officers involved were wearing full police uniforms. The related sworn complaint alleges battery on a law enforcement officer and simple battery.
Thomas, who is listed as living at GRACE Marketplace, has since been booked on charges including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, domestic battery by strangulation, felony battery and resisting an officer without violence. His criminal record includes 11 felony convictions, eight of them violent, along with 25 misdemeanor convictions, including two violent offenses. He has served three state prison terms and was most recently released in March. He is also on probation in two battery cases. Judge George Wright set bail at $305,000.