Woman arrested after allegedly threatening to cut off man’s penis with a knife, then leading officers on high-speed chase

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Gabriela Marie McLeskey, 31, was arrested yesterday after allegedly threatening to cut off a man’s penis with a knife and then leading deputies on a high-speed chase.

At about 8:03 a.m. yesterday morning, an Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy responded to a bus stop at 5950 SW 20th Avenue following a report of an armed disturbance. The victim told the deputy that a woman in a car had pulled over, gotten out of her car, and walked up to him, accusing him of sexual misconduct and then making sexual statements toward him. She then allegedly pulled out a kitchen knife, raised it over her head, and said she would cut off the victim’s penis and put it in his mouth. The victim said she swung the knife at him several times, and as he tried to defend himself, she hit his hat with her empty hand. He then called 911.

The victim pointed in the direction of a silver car parked on the side of the road, and the deputy reported that he saw a woman running toward the car; the victim reportedly confirmed that the woman was the one who had threatened him. The woman made it to her car and began driving east on SW 20th Avenue. The deputy activated his sirens, but she allegedly continued to drive, pulled into the Circle K at 52nd Street, then drove through the parking lot and to the exit, where she was blocked by traffic. Deputies were able to loosely box her car in with patrol vehicles, then they made contact with the woman and ordered her to get out of the car.

The woman allegedly refused to get out of the car, and while deputies were moving vehicles to better box her in, McLeskey allegedly pulled out onto SW 20th Avenue. Deputies reported that they pursued her for multiple miles until she began running red lights and passing other cars in the wrong lane. Traffic was heavy, and deputies backed off and lost contact with her car in the area of NW 43rd Street and NW 16th Boulevard.

A short time later, McLeskey’s car was found at her home in the 2700 block of NW 39th Drive. Deputies surrounded her home and made announcements ordering her to come out. At one point, McLeskey reportedly came out of the sliding back door of her residence, but she went back inside.

McLeskey was later arrested around 2:45 p.m. at her home.

McLeskey is also facing a domestic battery charge from April 2022, when she went to pick up her son from his father and allegedly told two men who had come with her to forcibly take her son, who was reportedly crying because he doesn’t like new people, from his father. She was also charged with battery on a nurse in a July 2022 incident at a hospital, but that charge was dropped. She has one misdemeanor conviction from 2013.

McLeskey has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, battery, and fleeing at high speed. Judge Thomas Jaworski set bail at $160,000.

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.