AUSTIN, Texas — An East Austin woman said she was beaten so badly last week that she went into labor early and gave birth to her child the next day.
Danielle McNelton said she’s been getting harassed by her neighbor and former home care patient for the past two months. Last Thursday, it all allegedly led to an attack.
In a video captured by a neighbor, 53-year-old Acie Bouye could be seen punching McNelton in the arms, chest, face, and stomach while she lay on the ground, with her arms protecting her face. McNelton said this should be one of the happiest times of her life, but she’s terrified.
“I’m afraid for my life,” McNelton said.
According to McNelton, her issues with Bouye started three months ago when she was assigned to be his home health care provider. She said everything was fine for a month until he showed up at her apartment door.
“He came to my house at like 12 o’clock in the morning knocking on my door, and I’m still pregnant,” McNelton said. “So, in my head, I’m like, ‘What are you doing here?’”
McNelton said she never told him they lived in the same apartment complex but didn’t think much of it until he started coming every day. She claimed he would also trespass on her balcony, loiter by her car and aggressively shout at her.
“Countless times I have just caught him up and down the stairs, pacing and going back and forth past my door,” McNelton said.
After multiple incidents, McNelton said called the police to start leaving a trail of incidents. Then in August, she said he blew up at her after she refused to give him a ride in her car.
“He started saying he was gonna kill me. He was gonna shoot me because I didn’t want to give him a ride,” McNelton said. “I had to call the police and then I reached out to my employer. I’m like, ‘Hey, I cannot work for him anymore.’”
McNelton said she filed a protection order soon after, but it was denied. She said Austin police would rarely respond to her calls, and when they did, she said they did not question or investigate Bouye.
“I’m alone. I have no help. Nobody’s gonna help me do anything. So, I just started keeping my mace out because it’s really the only thing I have,” McNelton said.
Then on Sept. 19, McNelton said she and her 4-year-old daughter were getting out of her car after a shopping trip. She said Bouye was yelling at her from the second-floor stairs balcony, but she ignored him because she was on the phone with her mother. Then she saw him coming at her from the corner of her eye.
“I just froze up, and then he just was like attacking me,” McNelton said. “Then I started to run because I realized, ‘You’re getting hit, you need to run.'”
Brenda Rose, McNelton’s mom, said she heard Bouye yelling before the phone went dead.
“I thought my baby was dead. I thought my baby was dead because she wasn’t answering the phone,” Rose said.
Neighbors called police and arrested Bouye for assault on a pregnant woman. Rose said it could’ve been prevented if action had been taken sooner.
“I feel like [police] failed us,” Rose said. “I feel like if they had done more to take initiative to help her and hear her cries, and not dismiss it as a nonemergency … It escalated and my daughter could have lost her life because that’s exactly what almost happened.”
McNelton’s apartment complex said they’re working to relocate her and evict Bouye. McNelton said she and her family do not have the funds to relocate and fears another assault may happen.
“That just let me know every day is not really promised to you because I could have died. My baby could have died. My daughter could have died, like nobody was out there to help us,” McNelton said.
According to court records, Bouye remains in the Travis County jail on a charge of assault on a pregnant person and is being held on a $60,000 bond. Protective orders have been filed in the case.