Homeless man arrested after hunt for man with hacksaw near UF campus
Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Collin Lydal Battershell, 38, was arrested early this morning on a sidewalk across from the UF campus after a caller reported that a man pointed a hacksaw at him; this was Battershell’s tenth arrest since October 2022.
At about 1:56 a.m. on April 18, Gainesville Police Department officers responded to a report of a white male carrying a hacksaw in the 1200 block of West University Avenue; the caller reportedly said that the man pointed the hacksaw at him.
An officer saw Battershell on the sidewalk in front of The Hub (1111 W. University Avenue), carrying something that appeared to be a saw. When the officer approached the man, he allegedly ran; the officer ordered the man to stop and to drop what he was carrying, and he allegedly refused.
After a brief foot pursuit by multiple officers, including patrol vehicles with lights and sirens activated, Battershell was arrested.
Battershell, whose address is listed as GRACE Marketplace, has been charged with resisting an officer without violence. He has three felony convictions (non-violent) and eight misdemeanor convictions (non-violent); he has been arrested 10 times in Alachua County since October 2022. He was most recently arrested in September 2025 for taking a phone from a Krispy Kreme employee and was sentenced to four months in jail in January 2026, with credit for 114 days served, after entering a plea of nolo contendere to the charge. Judge Denise Ferrero set bail at $15,000 on the new charge.
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.
He’s not homeless — he’s living in Alachua County/Gainesville taxpayers’ subsidized housing.
Liberal voters won’t house them but they’ll have the rest of us pay for their stupidity.
Agreed. He looks like a real winner.
Gainesville is a very friendly place for a homeless criminal to be. That’s why they come here. 10 arrests since late 2022 and back on the streets until he hurts or kills someone.
A little short on convictions for those arrests, too. Dropped or forgotten charges, like usual?
This is the same goof b all that claims he is in the Russian Army. He changed weapons. He was carrying around a Chainsaw chain for a while. Lock him away and give him serious meds before he kills someone.
Our SCUMMY judges and public lawyers WANT capital cases and notorious crimes. So they have job security, can write a book, be on court TV and retire sooner.
ACLUSPLCDNC Party 👿🤡👺💩👹
Something tells me this guy has one these get out of jail free cards that so many of the people at Grace have it’s called mentally incomplete to stand trial. but instead of sending him to the state mental hospital they just let him go what could go wrong. Half the people on the streets of the GSSR are jerking off in public the other half are running around with hacksaws in their hands.
If you met any of them only shake the hands of the ones with the hacksaws.
If I were on the city commission I’d say maybe our houseless neighbor was heading to his night shift at a metal shop and he was proudly showing off his new saw. Nothing wrong with that.
I thiought he was an undercover NYPD agent.
Masquerading as a LAPD officer.