Man arrested for threatening to kill neighbor

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Rolando Simon Perez, 23, was arrested early this morning and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and attempted armed burglary after a dispute with a neighbor turned physical.

At about 2:15 a.m. this morning, a Gainesville Police Department officer responded to a duplex in Pine Forest Homes after a report of a physical fight. The victim reported that he had objected to Perez watching him with his kids outside the residence and that Perez threw a beer can at him during a verbal altercation.

This led to a physical altercation, during which the victim sustained several scratches and a cut. The victim told the officer that he thought he saw Perez trying to reach for something to hit him with, so he hit Perez in the face with a closed fist to defend himself.

A witness who did not see how the fight started reportedly threw a bottle of alcohol at the victim’s head in an attempt to break up the fight.

After the two separated, Perez allegedly went back to his home and came out holding a kitchen knife and yelling, “I’m going to f***ing kill you” while walking toward the victim. The victim retreated into his own home, and Perez allegedly continued threatening to kill him while stabbing the victim’s door and using the knife to try to pry open the locks. When the victim called 911, Perez reportedly ran back to his home.

When officers tried to make contact with him at his home, Perez allegedly fled into a nearby wooded area and was arrested near the 100 block of NW 39th Avenue. After allegedly running into the woods while officers ordered him to stop, Perez was detained and arrested.

Perez has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, attempted armed burglary, and resisting an officer without violence. He has an out-of-state history in 2019-2020 and had an active arrest warrant out of Tennessee when he was previously arrested in 2022. He was charged with driving without a valid license and hit-and-run with property damage in March 2022, but the charges were later dropped. He was arrested in August 2022 and charged with DUI and driving with a suspended license; he entered a plea of nolo contendere to both charges and was sentenced to 210 days in the Alachua County Jail. His driver’s license was suspended again on September 22, 2023, when he failed to pay fines associated with that case.

Bail information is unavailable on weekends.

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.