Man accused of being a Peeping Tom, attacking woman at YMCA

By Marshall Benson, Cameron Taylor

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    NASHVILLE (WSMV) — A man is accused of being a Peeping Tom and attacking a woman at an East Nashville YMCA.

It happened at the location off Gallatin Pike on July 4.

“It’s very scary to think that at our Y that we go to, someone could just get into the locker room like that,” Lara Thrift who goes to the YMCA said.

Lara Thrift and Maggie Sherwood were on the way to the pool at the East Nashville YMCA. They’re now learning about a man facing Peeping Tom and assault charges.

“Up to this point, I’ve always felt comfortable at this Y,” Sherwood said.

Court records said a woman saw 19-year-old David Boni in the women’s locker room. That woman said the man lunged at her and tried to choke her.

“It’s definitely kind of scary to think that somebody would even want to do that to begin with,” Sherwood said.

Court documents also said Boni told police he accidentally went into the wrong locker room. He told them they bumped into one another and she started attacking him because “he figured she thought he was going to attack her.”

During the investigation, police said Boni later admitted to going into the women’s locker room with “the intent to see unclothed girls without their knowledge or consent.”

The affidavit also said he “stated he had never seen a naked girl in person.”

“I mean it’s pretty unsettling. I feel like it’s scary to think that, you know, we’re trying to go to the gym, go to the pool, and work out and that can happen just down the street,” Thrift said.

The YMCA said they called police as soon as it was reported and banned him.

For Thrift and Sherwood, they want to see more safety precautions.

“We should really make sure in the future, we can monitor who is going in and out of the locker rooms because that could definitely happen again. Obviously, it happened,” Thrift said.

When News4 reached out to the YMCA for their response to the incident, they assured safety is their top priority for guests.

“The safety of our members and staff is a top priority at every YMCA, and we take a number of precautions as part of our routine operations, screening every new member against the national sex offender registry and routinely performing staff walk-throughs of our restrooms, which we will continue. We review our safety protocols regularly and will certainly take this extremely rare but disturbing incident into account when considering any necessary enhancements or improvements to existing protocols. When this incident occurred, we immediately notified police and terminated the membership of the suspect, who remains banned from all YMCA branches in our association. We are grateful for the swift response of law enforcement and are glad the suspect has been apprehended and charged.”

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