A woman trying to use her apartment building’s gym to work out ended up having to fight off an alleged attacker. The incident was caught on camera.
The attack happened last month but law enforcement released an edited version of the security camera video this week, NBC News reported.
A woman shares her experience after fighting off a man who physically assaulted her in her apartment complex's gym.
— HCSO (@HCSOSheriff) February 15, 2023
Nashali Alma wanted to speak out about her experience to encourage other women who've dealt with similar incidents to speak out. pic.twitter.com/hyTeO3quRA
The video shows Nashali Alma, 24, opening the gym’s door for a man at the Inwood Park Apartment Complex in Tampa, Fox News reported.
She told investigators that she had seen the man at the gym in the past and that’s why she allowed him into the locked room, Fox News reported.
She went back to her workout, and he approached Alma and tried to grab her.
“Next thing you know,” Alma said, according to WFAA, “I get up from doing my workout and I grab my phone and he just approaches me and not a single word was exchanged.”
Alma ran from the man and when he tried to grab her several times, she hit him. At one point, the man forces her to the floor, but she is able to fight him off while calling 911.
The man then appears to give up.
Alma ran to a nearby apartment.
“When it was happening, I actually had no fear,” Alma said, according to WFAA. “I am a body builder and I’m actually pretty strong, so in my mind, he was kind of equal to me.”
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office identified the man as Xavier Thomas-Jones, 25.
Deputies said he returned to the apartment complex, where he is a resident, and was watching another woman “for several minutes” before knocking on her door. Officials said that the woman answered the knocks, not knowing that he had allegedly been watching her. Deputies said that he asked her if she wanted to “hang out” and he tried to enter her apartment before her fiancée chased him away, WTVT reported.
Thomas-Jones told deputies that he restrained and battered Alma because he wanted to have sex with her. He told law enforcement that he went to the apartment of the second woman, who was not identified, because he thought she was “pretty” and he wanted to have sex with her also, WTVT reported.
Thomas-Jones has been charged with kidnapping, sexual battery, false imprisonment and burglary, WTVT reported.
