JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A man who pleaded guilty to a 2022 attack on a woman at an Arlington gas station will be sentenced Friday on one count of felony battery.
Kevin Williamson faces a maximum of five years in prison for the third-degree felony charge, which was upgraded from a misdemeanor battery charge after a review of facts and Williamson’s criminal history, which includes a conviction for raping a child in 1990.
Video from inside a convenience store on University Boulevard shows Williamson’s altercation with Rayme McCoy on May 16, 2022.
McCoy’s attorney requested that the State Attorney’s Office prosecute the case as a hate crime, but the SAO declined because of McCoy’s actions just before the attack and because it said it didn’t have evidence that McCoy was “individually targeted” because of her race.
Attack caught on video
McCoy shared the store surveillance video of the attack with News4JAX. It shows Williamson punching her at least 10 times before leaving the store.
Duval County court documents also provided more details about the attack, which followed a brief exchange between McCoy and Williamson.
RELATED: Court documents detail moments leading up to Arlington gas station attack
McCoy told News4JAX that she walked into the gas station near her home and was followed by an older white man who was already involved in an argument with someone outside.
McCoy said the man was “ranting and raving” and using “racist” language and that at one point, the man walked toward the counter where McCoy was standing and she asked him to back up. That’s when the man said he had a gun in his car, McCoy said.
Things got heated and McCoy hit some beer cans off a freezer. Williamson said the cans hit him, setting him off.
The video shared with News4JAX, which does not contain audio of the exchange, was also posted on social media and shared thousands of times.
(Warning: The video contains images that some might find disturbing.)
Details surrounding attack
News4JAX later obtained the unredacted arrest report that shows Williamson’s spontaneous utterance to police was, “Did you watch the whole video? She hit me first.”
Williamson said that the woman attacked him and stated that he “was in a Black town and asked what else was he supposed to do,” according to the report.
Williamson said the woman was screaming at him, “stating that he was racist because of how he spoke to an ‘Iranian gentlemen’ outside,” according to the report.
Williamson said the woman knocked several canned items off the counter, hitting him in the side and foot, and he stated, “That is what set him off,” according to the report.
He said that he then struck her three times with an open hand on the side of her head and told police that he did not make any racial statements toward the woman, the report said.
News4JAX also obtained the arrest warrant, which contains reference to another racial comment.
When Williamson came into the store to buy beers, the woman, after hearing his comments to the man outside, asked him to back away from her because he was standing too close, the warrant said.
Williamson said words to the effect about her being “those people,” and told her he had a gun in his car and to not mess with him, according to the warrant.
The woman yelled at Williamson that if he grabbed his gun or hit her, she would have someone come to the gas station to protect her, the warrant shows.
They started to argue, according to the warrant, and at one point, Williamson “would not back away,” so the woman slapped a can of beer onto the ground. Williamson then “immediately started punching” her in the face several times and fled the store.
Records show Williamson has been a registered sex offender for over 30 years and had a repeat domestic violence injunction filed against him that was later dismissed. There were two aggravated assault charges, one of which was with a deadly weapon, and both were dropped, court records show.
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