Eugene Nyavor
Nashali Alma , a 24 year old Instagram fitness model was left to fight for her life inside her Florida apartment complex gym after she let a man who police say intended to rape her into the building.
Describing her ordeal, Nashali Alma revealed she was exercising in the gym at the Inwood Park Apartment Complex in Tampa when Xavier Thomas-Jones attacked her Jan. 22, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office charged.
Security footage posted on social media by the sheriff’s office shows Alma letting Thomas-Jones into the facility before continuing her workout.
Thomas-Jones, 25, is then seen trying to grab Alma’s waist — but she leaps away.
Her attacker later told police he was trying to rape her.
Sheriff Chad Chronister said: ‘I was disgusted by the suspect’s actions, how he preyed on this young woman. I’m grateful that she came forward, I know her story is going to be an inspiration to other women.’
Alma said that she let the suspect, Xavier Thomas-Jones, 25, into the building because she recognized him as someone who she had seen inside the complex before.
At one point in the video, Thomas-Jones then grabbed Alma and pinned her on the floor. She continued to fight him off while attempting to call 911.
Eventually, he released his grip on Alma, and she immediately ran out of the gym to a nearby apartment.
Watch Nashali Alma Video below
‘When it was happening, I actually had no fear,’ Alma said in describing the attack. ‘I am a bodybuilder, and I’m actually pretty strong, so in my mind, he was kinda equal to me.’
She continued: ‘The more fight you put, the more they want to give up… If I keep going, I keep pushing, he’s going to stop. He’s going to let go and he finally did.’
‘My advice would be to never give up,’ Alma said in the video. ‘My parents always told me in life, to never give up on anything and that’s one thing I always kept in my mind when I was fighting him.’
The model was able to drive her attacker away and he fled building before officers arrived. He was arrested around 24 hours later and charged with sexual battery, false imprisonment and kidnapping.
