A Kissimmee woman was arrested after she allegedly pulled out a knife and threatened customers inside a Polk County Dollar General store — and was held at gunpoint by two armed shoppers until deputies arrived. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd described the incident in a video statement on Wednesday, October 28, praising the two citizens who intervened: "This is Polk County to the rescue. Way to go, Polk County!"
Source: WFTS Tampa Bay 28 (ABC Action News)
The Polk County Sheriff's Office (PCSO) identified the woman as Natalia Gaviria, 36, who lives in Kissimmee, in neighbouring Osceola County. According to Sheriff Judd, she was intoxicated when she entered the Dollar General, pulled out a knife and began waving it around and threatening customers inside the store. WKMG News 6 in Orlando carried the same account of the sheriff's statement.
Source: WKMG News 6 ClickOrlando via EuropeSays
"I didn't stutter. She pulled out a knife, and she's waving it around and threatening customers," Judd said in the video, released on the sheriff's office's social media. One of the store's managers began ushering customers out of a back door to get them away from the woman, the sheriff said.
At one point, according to Judd, the woman stabbed a soda bottle with the knife. No injuries to customers or staff were described in the sheriff's account of the incident.
That is when two other shoppers who were carrying concealed firearms drew their guns and held the woman at gunpoint until deputies arrived and took her into custody, Judd said. "That's right. They both had concealed firearms. One had a permit, and in Florida, you don't have to have a permit to have a concealed firearm," the sheriff explained. "They pull their guns out and held her at gunpoint. Way to go Polk County!"
The charges — and a difference between the two reports
The Sheriff's Office charged the woman with two counts of aggravated assault and with disorderly intoxication, WFTS reported from the PCSO account. WKMG's account of the same sheriff's statement lists her charges as disorderly intoxication, theft and aggravated assault. The two station reports also spell her surname differently — Gaviria in WKMG's report, Gaviara in WFTS's. All of the charges are allegations: she has not been convicted, and the case will now move through the Polk County courts, where she will have the chance to respond to them.
The sheriff's immigration claim
Sheriff Judd also said, in the same video, that the woman is from Colombia and is in the United States illegally. "Maybe you act that way in Colombia, but you don't act that way in Florida, and you sure don't act that way in Polk County," he said. "Or we'll pull our guns on you here." That immigration-status claim comes from the sheriff's statement alone; neither station report said it had been independently confirmed, and Awaaz Punjab reports it as the sheriff's claim, not as an established fact. Judd, one of Florida's best-known sheriffs, regularly posts video accounts of arrests in his county, and his statements in such videos are his office's version of events.
Sheriff Judd did not say where in Polk County the Dollar General store is located, and he did not give the exact day or time of the incident itself — Wednesday is when he described it publicly. Neither report described any injury to a customer, an employee or the woman herself.
Why two shoppers could legally be armed
The detail Judd himself underlined — that only one of the two citizens who intervened had a permit — reflects Florida's current law. Since 2023, Florida has allowed eligible adults to carry a concealed firearm without a state permit, a system often called permitless or constitutional carry; permits still exist and some carriers keep them for travel to other states. Supporters of the law point to incidents like this one as the system working as intended; critics argue that more armed bystanders raise the risk of a confrontation escalating. In this case, on the sheriff's account, no shot was fired and the woman was held until deputies arrived.
Polk County sits between Tampa and Orlando in central Florida, and Kissimmee, where the accused woman lives, is one of the most heavily immigrant communities in the state, with large Latino and South Asian populations. For diaspora readers in the corridor, the story lands on two live local debates at once: how Florida's gun laws play out in everyday public spaces, and how quickly immigration status becomes part of the public story of an arrest — here, through a sheriff's video rather than a court filing.
What is solid
- A woman was arrested after allegedly threatening Dollar General customers with a knife in Polk County, per the Sheriff's Office
- Two armed citizens held her at gunpoint until deputies arrived; a manager moved customers out a back door
- PCSO charged her with aggravated assault and disorderly intoxication, per WFTS
What is only claimed
- Her immigration status — stated by Sheriff Judd, not independently confirmed in either report
- The exact charge list and the spelling of her surname, which differ between the WFTS and WKMG reports
What happens next
The woman remains subject to the criminal process in Polk County: a first court appearance, where the charges are read and bail is addressed, and then prosecution by the State Attorney's Office if the charges are filed formally. The Sheriff's Office has released no further statement beyond Judd's video, and the two citizens who intervened have not been publicly named in the reports.