DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (TCN) — A 13-year-old boy on vacation with his family had his neck slashed in a random attack, authorities say.
Sullivan Clarke and his family were reportedly in town to see the Daytona 500 NASCAR race. According to an arrest affidavit obtained by WFLA, police responded to an area near the Daytona Beach boardwalk on Feb. 14 after receiving a report that someone had been slashed in the throat.
Witnesses stated a man had been lingering near the boy and then slashed Clarke’s throat with a box cutter. Surveillance footage shows the suspect approach Clarke, who was looking at his phone, and cut his neck horizontally.
Lori Nicole Clarke, the boy’s mother, said she thought the suspect was going to steal his phone, WFLA reports.
“I saw my son’s neck totally gashed open,” the boy’s father, Jerod Alan Clarke said, according to WFLA. “I could see the meat in his neck. It was crazy.”
A bystander reportedly helped him stop the bleeding with tissues, according to WFLA. Clarke was taken to a hospital, where he received 13 stitches, according to WKMG.
WESH reports a doctor told Clarke’s father his son might not have survived if the cut had been 1 millimeter deeper.
The suspect, Jermaine Long, 44, was apprehended nearby and arrested on an aggravated battery charge, WFLA reports. The affidavit states he admitted to putting his hands on the victim but not to slashing his throat.
Long is a Florida sex offender and is also listed as a sex offender in Nebraska, per WFLA. Other past charges include battery, theft, and drug possession.
Long was arrested in January for allegedly trying to hurt two men with a knife and then allegedly hitting them with a pole, WKMG reports. Prosecutors dropped those charges and Long was released from jail four days before allegedly attacking Clarke.
WESH reports Long is being held on a $50,000 bond.
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