Homeless man arrested for pulling knife on two men
Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Floyd Edward Taber, 55, was arrested for allegedly pulling a knife on two men.
At about midnight on May 21, Gainesville Police Department officers responded to Wawa (2305 NW 13th Street), where the victims said they had gotten into a argument with Taber on the south side of the store’s building, and Taber pulled out a folding knife and walked toward them while displaying the knife.
The victims both reportedly said they saw a silver blade and feared for their safety.
A search incident to arrest reportedly produced a glass pipe and metal plunger, commonly used with a crack pipe.
Post Miranda, Taber reportedly admitted that he had pulled a knife toward both victims because he was frustrated and felt disrespected. He said he never exposed the blade and kept the knife closed. He reportedly admitted that the glass pipe was used for smoking “crack” and said it was his.
Taber, who is described as homeless in court documents, has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of drug paraphernalia. He has no criminal convictions, and Judge Adam Lee set bail at $25,000.
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.
I posted the below comment a couple hours ago on the previous article about criminal homeless beggars at this exact intersection. The city and police know but refuse to do anything until it’s too late.
“That intersection (NW 13th St and NW 23rd Ave) has been an abomination for years. It is constantly littered with garbage, blankets, stolen shopping carts, and drug riddled beggars. I feel bad for those businesses. The cops need to grow a backbone and do their job…regardless of what the politicians tell them to do.”
You’re not safe at a bus stop 🚏, a water 💧 fountain ⛲️, a traffic light 🚦, inside your apartment🏡, a 🏪 convenience store, or a city park 🏞️!
Does local government think they will make the city safer buy buying up motels 🏨 and housing the vagrant unhoused here?
Is it the responsibility of local taxpayers to provide permanent housing for bums and buy hotel 🏨 rooms for them when we have cold weather?
Our taxpayer money is supposed to go to essential services like police, fire, parks, & roads.
1. Police need to do their jobs and keep panhandlers out of street median like Waldo road & 39th Ave… what’s the problem?
2. 🚒 firefighters don’t need to be wasting their time putting out fires at illegal bum encampments started by vagrants tossing their smoldering 🔥🚬cigarette butts…we currently are in a burn ban.
3. We have a 🔪 knife violence emergency, a gun violence emergency, a homeless crime emergency…
this is their solution:
House them, feed them, invite them here, throw $ millions at them! What a bunch of BS! …10 year plan to end homelessness…
that’s not the job of Alachua county taxpayers!
The church’s need to help them
Because they’re 501c3 tax exempt.
Those fancy mega churches can house them on their property, feed them, preach to them, and make them do chores, or give them a bus 🚌 ticket 🎟️ back to where they came from.. it’s the church’s job to help their fellow man with charity.
Will you be the next victim of their crime?
The city doesn’t need to be inviting any more Ted Bundy’s here and adding more names to the 34th street wall..
I say it’s time for local government to do their public safety jobs already…
is DeSantis going to have to take the mayor & city commissioners out and appoint new ones that will keep tax paying
Citizens safe?
DeSantis had to fix GRU with the Utility authority…now DeSantis may have to fix our homeless crime emergency because the mayor & local democrat elected officials have been complicit with the panhandling and homeless crime emergency we are having in Gainesville..
Is he new here, hence “no record”?
Repeat offenders should be dropped off in the gated subdivisions of judges and lawyers.
Or given the address of the mayor and CITY commissioners