Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Lance Damont Hankerson, 29, was arrested yesterday morning after allegedly entering his former girlfriend’s house and snatching her purse from her body; he was on conditional release after being found mentally incompetent to proceed on previous charges against the same victim.

At about 8:30 a.m. yesterday, a Gainesville Police Department officer responded to the victim’s home, where she said Hankerson had walked into her back door and confronted her in her living room. She said she told him to leave, but he grabbed her purse, which was positioned across her body, breaking the strap. She said she was able to get him to calm down and give her back the purse, then she ran from her home.

While officers were still at her house, Hankerson allegedly sent a text to the victim, saying he saw the police at her home. About an hour and a half after that, the victim called the police and said Hankerson was at her window, trying to get into her home. An officer reported seeing Hankerson crouched down at the victim’s back window, trying to open the window, then Hankerson allegedly ran and tried to enter a different home by its back door, about 300 yards from the first victim’s home. Hankerson was reportedly detained after an officer used a taser to apprehend him.

Post Miranda, Hankerson reportedly said he was holding the victim’s purse and the strap broke because she snatched it from his hands. He said he went to her home to get his belongings, then said he hadn’t been to her home in over a year. He said he tried to get back into the home through the back window because he saw patrol vehicles in front of the home.

Hankerson and the victim broke up in 2021, and a few days later, Hankerson was charged with robbery by sudden snatching after allegedly entering the victim’s car while she was dropping her children off at school, then snatching her car keys out of her back pocket in the school office. Two months later, he allegedly took her car keys and phone after she left them in the car because she ran into her house when she saw him approaching; he later allegedly came back while she was getting items out of her car and grabbed her around the neck.

In February 2022, Hankerson was found incompetent to proceed in both cases but did “not meet the criteria for commitment to a training facility of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities… but [was] in need of outpatient training to restore competency to proceed.” He was released to live with a relative in Starke under the supervision of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities and was ordered to have no contact with the victim. The conditional release order has been renewed twice since that date.

Hankerson has been charged with three counts of burglary of an occupied dwelling, battery, aggravated stalking, and two counts of resisting an officer without violence. Judge William Davis set bail on those charges at $520,000, but Hankerson will be held without bail on the 2021 case until that case is resolved.

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.