‘He’s a Family Man’: Florida Dad Gets 12 Years for Slashing Woman Who Pushed Him First During Grocery Store Fight Over ‘Uncontrolled Kids’
A routine trip to the grocery store ended in a near-fatal stabbing when a Florida father grabbed a knife from the butcher’s counter after a woman got into a verbal altercation with his then-partner, an act of violence that landed him behind bars for more than a decade.
The brutal attack happened June 9, 2023, when 40-year-old Jammacar Rodkesh Gayle entered Milan Supermarket in Port Charlotte, Florida, with his children and ex-wife. The family headed straight toward the meat counter at the back of the store, where customers were waiting in line.
What happens next varies in conflicting reports.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by Law and Crime, the would-be victim walked up and confronted the parents over their children’s behavior, sparking an argument between the two women.
Efforts by Atlanta Black Star to obtain the affidavit from the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office were unsuccessful. However, according to a press release from the State Attorney for the 20th Judicial Circuit of Florida, the argument between the victim and Gayle’s spouse sparked over the mother’s use of “foul language.” The victim reportedly told Gayle’s partner to stop.
Initially, Gayle stood aside and didn’t engage in the fight, according to police records.
Surveillance footage reportedly showed him keeping his distance as the two women went back and forth.
Things briefly settled when the other woman stepped away to collect part of the order she had placed. But when she returned to pick up the rest, tensions quickly reignited.
As the woman passed Gayle’s ex-spouse, one of them said something out of line.
According to authorities, Gayle’s ex-wife pushed the woman, who shoved her back. When Gayle stepped in, the woman knocked into him — setting off a brawl near the meat counter, where chef knives were displayed for sale.
The woman pushed Gayle against a meat cooler and moved past him. Enraged, Gayle grabbed a cast-iron pan from a nearby shelf and swung it toward her, but the man’s eldest daughter intervened, managing to pull the pan away before it made contact.
Gayle refused to calm down, and suddenly reached for an 8-inch chef’s knife still in its packaging, tore it open, and slashed and stabbed the woman, police said.
A detective later described the scene captured on store video, saying Gayle swung the knife overhead twice, slashed the weapon across the woman, then brought the blade down two more times in a frenzy.
Sliced across the head and abdomen, the woman began “bleeding profusely” as Gayle and his family fled the store, police said. The wounded woman staggered to the parking lot, dripping with blood, trying to photograph the man’s license plate. Gayle, still holding the bloody knife, threatened her again before peeling off.
The victim was airlifted to a trauma center with life-threatening injuries.
She later told Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office investigators that she’d been attacked by a Black man who grabbed a large chef’s knife from a shelf after an argument over his “uncontrolled kids,” according to reports, citing Gayle’s arrest affidavit.
Police raided a home in North Port to arrest Gayle, but he was nowhere to be found. Detectives searched the residence and recovered the knife used in the attack, as well as Gayle’s bloodstained clothes, which he discarded in a trash bag before driving to New York, prosecutors later claimed.
Gayle was arrested the next day in Queens by U.S. Marshals and extradited to Florida to face charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon or causing great bodily harm.
At trial, prosecutors argued Gayle had brutally attacked the woman in a public setting over a petty dispute. Defense attorney Diane Gonzalez, however, said Gayle felt threatened and acted “way out of his character,” she told the jury. “He doesn’t have a record, he’s a family person.”
In an interview with McClatchy News, she said Gayle broke down while testifying and was remorseful about what happened. She also disputed the idea that Gayle was fleeing, saying he drove to New York only to drop off his son before planning to turn himself in. The jury didn’t buy it.
In March, following a three-day trial, Gayle was convicted of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon or causing great bodily harm. On April 14, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Gayle’s lawyer said he intends to appeal the verdict.
Both Gayle’s family and the victim were familiar faces to the store owner, who described them as regulars. Whether their paths had ever crossed before that day, he couldn’t say. But in a matter of seconds, a public spat fueled by perceived slights and disrespect escalated into a near-fatal encounter — one that ended with a knife flashing in the aisles and blood on the floor.