A man choked a child over ice cream Monday evening, police said.
Johnny Gerald Knutson, 36, of Steinhatchee, Florida, is accused of hitting a child during an argument at a house on the 1500 block of Southwest Archer Road, according to a Gainesville Police arrest report. Knutson told The Alligator that the child was his niece.
Knutson punched the child during an argument over the child eating ice cream, the report said. The child punched Knutson back.
Knutson began choking the child, the report said. While being held down, the child grabbed a knife from a nearby counter and swung it at Knutson in self-defense, the report said.
The child cut Knutson along the left side of his torso, police said. The child then ran out of the house.
When police met the child, an officer noticed a few inches of redness on the area around the child’s neck and ears, the report said.
At the house, the officer saw the knife next to a bowl of ice cream beginning to melt, the report said. Ice cream was splashed onto the ground and the ice cream container was lying on the kitchen floor.
Knutson later told officers that he grabbed the child by the back of her neck while they were facing each other in the kitchen doorway, the report said. He forced the child to bend forward so the child couldn’t hit him.
He told police the ice cream had nothing to do with the argument and that the child was acting out while they were watching a YouTube video, the report said.
Knutson was charged with child abuse, the report said. He was released from the Alachua County Jail on his own recognizance Monday morning.
Knutson told The Alligator the child is out of control, thinks she is grown up and needs help.
Contact Alyssa Ramos at aramos@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @LysKRamos
