“It turned into a WWE match”: Three arrested after allegedly pushing into apartment and fighting with three victims

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Kaliyah Michelle Dixon, 21; Tearence Lamont McNeal Jr., 22; and Rashaune Ahmontai Pete, 22, were arrested on Tuesday after allegedly following two victims from the pool area of an apartment complex into an apartment and attacking three victims inside the apartment; McNeal allegedly hit one victim with a boiling pot of water.

A Gainesville Police Department officer reported that at about 6:31 p.m. on December 2, the first victim said he was at the community pool at the Canopy apartment complex (4400 SW 20th Avenue) with a friend when the three defendants showed up and tried to get him to fight. The first and second victim (the friend) left the pool to go back to the first victim’s apartment, and the three defendants allegedly followed them, trying to provoke a fight along the way. The first victim said someone hit him in the back of the head as he walked up to his apartment, and when he went inside the apartment, Pete and McNeal pushed their way inside.

The second victim said that McNeal picked up a boiling pot of water from the stove and hit him in the back of the head with it.

A third victim, who also lives in the apartment, said he was making rice on the stove when the first two victims ran inside and said, “Trouble is coming.” He said McNeal and Pete pushed through the front door and started fighting with the first two victims while the third victim tried to close the door and keep Dixon out, but Dixon put something in the doorway that prevented the door from closing.

The third victim said Dixon told him to let her in so she could “break up the fight,” and he said she came inside for a brief time before leaving; the third victim said he locked the door after she left and then “helped with the fight.” The third victim said that when McNeal hit the second victim with the pot of boiling water, he slammed McNeal to the ground and choked him until he lost consciousness.

The first and second victims said they got control of Pete on the ground, but then McNeal woke up and tried to join the fight again, so the third victim choked him again until he lost consciousness. The victims said Pete calmed down briefly and then became violent again, so they held Pete down until the police arrived.

Although Dixon had left the area of the apartment, officers reportedly found her a short time later. She reportedly stated spontaneously that she had been at the pool, waiting for a friend with McNeal and Pete, when the first and second victim walked by and called her a name. She said McNeal and Pete confronted the two victims, and they all began yelling at each other before going to the first victim’s apartment.

The victims said they never gave any of the defendants permission to enter the apartment.

Dixon

Post Miranda, Dixon reportedly said she stayed downstairs until she heard fighting in the apartment and then ran upstairs. She said she saw McNeal and Pete fighting with two of the victims and tried to get into the apartment to get to them, but the third victim held the door closed. She said she eventually got into the apartment, pushed past the third victim, and tried to break up the fight. She said the victims pushed her out of the apartment, and she left the area.

Dixon has been charged with battery and burglary of an occupied dwelling, and she was also booked on a battery warrant from a May incident in which she allegedly hit another woman, causing that woman to drop her baby; the baby was unresponsive when officers arrived and was transported to the hospital for treatment of a possible head injury. Dixon has no criminal history, and Judge Meshon Rawls set bail at $34,000 on the four charges.

McNeal

Post Miranda, McNeal said Dixon, his girlfriend, had briefly dated the first victim when they broke up for a short time, and he, Dixon, and Pete were visiting one of Dixon’s friends at the apartment complex. He said that when the first victim walked by, he asked about some of Dixon’s belongings that had not been returned, and he said the first victim called Dixon a name, which made him upset. He said they all argued while walking to the first victim’s apartment, and the first victim let them into the apartment. He said he picked the pot up from the ground, not the stove, and it was empty.

On the way to the jail, McNeal reportedly said that the first victim went inside the apartment to get a gun, and he saw a gun when the first victim opened the apartment door; he said that was when Pete attacked the first victim, starting the physical fight.

McNeal has been charged with aggravated battery and burglary of an occupied dwelling. He has no criminal history, and Judge Rawls set bail at $75,000.

Pete

Post Miranda, Pete said McNeal asked the first victim a question at the pool, and the first victim said something “slick.” He said things got “heated” when they got to the stairs of the first victim’s apartment, and “one of the boys said, ‘Come in,'” so he and McNeal went inside, and “it turned into a WWE match.” He said all he knew was that McNeal got put into a headlock, but then he said there “wasn’t no fight, only a tussle.” He said he didn’t know who started fighting first.

Pete has been charged with battery and burglary of an occupied dwelling. He has no criminal convictions, and Judge Rawls set bail at $35,000.

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.