Marion County deputies arrested an Ocala woman late Thursday night after a confrontation on her neighbor’s birthday earlier in the week turned violent.
Deputies were called to a home on Juniper Pass Course this past Monday after a woman claimed 35-year-old Nyla Marie Brown had charged at her, grabbed her hair and punched her in the face. The woman said the altercation broke out after Brown went to her mailbox and made a derogatory comment to her. She said Brown was upset at her because she had confronted her children after a recent fire in the woods near her house, a sheriff’s office report states.
The woman said she initially told Brown “to go back home” but she charged her and the fight quickly escalated off the side of the driveway and onto the grass. In the process, the woman said she scraped her ankle and elbow before her fiancé finally pulled Brown off of her.
Deputies noted that the woman’s face was swollen where she said she’d been hit and her elbow and ankle were scraped. Deputies also saw two braids the woman said she pulled out of Brown’s hair in self-defense and a red bandana she had been wearing, the report says.
An eyewitness who had stopped by to say “happy birthday” confirmed the woman’s story. She told deputies that after the woman told Brown to go home, she charged at the woman and started pulling her hair, the report says.
Brown was booked into the Marion County Jail at 12:32 a.m. Friday morning and charged with battery. She was released shortly after noon on $1,000 bond.
