Watch: A woman fought off an attacker in the gym of an apartment building

TAMPA, Florida (WFTS) — A woman successfully fought off a man who attacked her in the gym of her apartment complex.

The attack took place on January 22 at the Oaks of Woodland Park apartments in Tampa, Florida.

Nashali Alma, 24, trained alone. She let the suspect into the gym because she had seen him at the gym before.

“Usually people forget their key chains and trinkets. We let them in and I let the gentleman in. I didn’t hesitate to let him in. I was in the middle of a workout,” Alma said.

Surveillance video showed Alma continuing to exercise while the suspect, Xavier Thomas-Jones, approached her and tried to grab her around the waist. Alma pushed him away and continued to wrestle with him. The attack lasted over one minute.

“After we wrestled a bit on the ground, I went ahead and pulled his hair by his beard. I started spinning, spinning, spinning. I saw on his face that it was very painful,” said Alma.

Thomas-Jones was able to pin Alma to the floor, but Alma continued to fight him off, trying to call 911.

“The moment I tried to call 911, he tried to grab my hand or he grabbed me at that moment. I can’t call 911 so I need to deal with it for now,” Alma said.

Alma is a bodybuilder. She said she hoped he would eventually get tired if she continued to fight.

“That’s been my thought the whole time, because the more you fight, I believe they’ll get more tired because they see, ‘Damn, that girl is fighting.’ You know, at the end of the video you can see that he is tired,” said Alma.

Alma managed to break free, run out of the gym and call 911.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office was able to track down the man and arrest him on January 23rd. He faces charges of sexual harassment, false imprisonment and kidnapping.

Alma said she wanted to share her experience to encourage other women who have experienced similar incidents to speak up.

“I would advise every woman to always keep fighting, never give up,” she said. “As long as you resist and show him that you are strong and do not give up, I believe that it is possible to escape. It is best to contact law enforcement as soon as possible. The sooner they have information, the sooner they can catch this person.”

“I was outraged by the suspect’s actions, the way he hunted this young woman,” Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronicer said.

According to the protocol of the criminal case, the man was involved in a similar incident the day after the attack in the gym. Authorities said he knocked on another woman’s door after watching her on her balcony for several minutes.

“He comes and knocks on the door, and I answer, thinking that it could be a security guard or something, and I open the door, and he’s like: “Do you want to hang out,” the woman recalls.

Deputies said the man took about four steps into the apartment before the woman’s fiancé shooed him away.

According to police, the man confessed to deputies that he wanted to have sexual intercourse with both women.

This story was originally published on abcactionnews.com.

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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

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