A 50-year-old man is facing multiple felony charges after deputies say he left a Mangonia Park 7-Eleven following a dispute over lottery tickets, then returned about five minutes later carrying a machete and struck a store clerk with it while children were inside. Rayon Hendley McDonald was arrested on September 1 and booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on charges that include burglary with assault or battery, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and aggravated assault on specified personnel.
According to WPBF 25, the incident began on August 23 when McDonald entered the convenience store at 2100 45th Street to buy lottery tickets and became involved in a verbal dispute with a clerk. Deputies say McDonald threatened to kill the clerk, according to the clerk's statement, before leaving and returning roughly five minutes later in a white Hyundai sedan carrying a machete. Investigators later identified McDonald as the registered owner of the vehicle linked to the incident.
Per deputies, McDonald waved the machete near the clerk's face and, according to the clerk's statement, struck the clerk with the weapon before pushing the clerk into a display. A second employee told investigators the encounter left her fearing for her safety. Deputies say children were inside the store during the confrontation.
Video Backs Up Witness Accounts, Investigators Say
Investigators reviewed surveillance video from the store, and per investigators, the footage was consistent with the victims' statements. That combination of witness statements, surveillance footage, and other evidence established probable cause for the charges against McDonald, according to the same investigators. The Riviera Beach man now faces several felony charges tied to the encounter, deputies say.
The 7-Eleven sits inside the Park Plaza strip shopping center along the 45th Street commercial corridor, according to commercial real estate records from LoopNet. Public safety in the Town of Mangonia Park runs through an interlocal agreement with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, which operates a local substation at 1755 East Tiffany Drive, per the 211 Resource Directory. The small municipality's fiscal year 2025–2026 General Fund budget of $5.89 million includes ad valorem property tax revenue allocated toward those public safety contracts with the sheriff's office and West Palm Beach Fire Rescue, according to municipal records from the Town of Mangonia Park.
Steep Penalties Under Florida Law
McDonald was charged with burglary with assault or battery, three counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and one count of aggravated assault on specified personnel. Under Section 810.02 of the Florida Statutes, burglary with assault or battery is a first-degree felony punishable by up to life imprisonment, according to the Sammis Law Firm. Aggravated battery with a deadly weapon is a second-degree felony under Section 784.045, carrying up to 15 years in prison and fines as high as $10,000, per Hanlon Law.
The aggravated assault charge stems from Florida Statute 784.07, which allows assault or battery offenses to be reclassified into higher felony categories when committed against specified protected personnel carrying out their lawful duties, according to the Florida House of Representatives. That statutory enhancement suggests the employment or protected status of those involved factored into how prosecutors classified the case.
Not the First Weapon Incident on the Strip
This is not the first weapon-related confrontation to draw a law enforcement response along the same commercial strip. In June 2026, Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies responded to a separate machete-related confrontation at a Mangonia Park gas station also on 45th Street, where a Riviera Beach woman was arrested on charges of armed burglary and aggravated battery, according to a WPEC report shared on Facebook.
The 45th Street corridor functions as a major regional thoroughfare near Interstate 95, the local Tri-Rail commuter station, and the site of the shuttered Palm Beach Jai Alai, which entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year. The stretch links local retail centers directly to major commuter routes across Palm Beach County. Florida is home to 1,047 7-Eleven locations as of this month, according to retail data from StoreLocators, many of them operating around the clock with lottery sales that draw steady late-night foot traffic.
