CLEARWATER, Fla. — Clearwater Beach, one of the most popular tourist beaches in Florida, was the scene of a vicious attack on Sunday night. Police say that a local man was stabbed and slashed with a box cutter in front of children on the boardwalk.
“I got 17 stitches,” Auztin Blount told ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska. “It went all the way down to the bone.”
Sunday night, Blount said he was enjoying a nice evening out with his girlfriend and another friend. He was sitting on the seawall just down from Pier 60 when he said a woman, who Clearwater police later identified as Kristi Kauffmann, approached him.
“She asked me if I wanted to buy some flowers for my girl,” Blount said. “Five dollars for a rose. I told her, ‘no thanks.’ Then she continued to ask me and said ‘do you want to buy some marijuana’ I said ‘no I’m alright’ then she was like, ‘you don’t even know what I have it’s that good stuff’ and then she went to go pulling the drugs out and that’s when I was like, 'you gotta go' I told her she had to leave.”
In a split second, Blount said Kauffmann became enraged. Blount said Kauffmann started arguing with his girlfriend.
"I told my girl to chill out,” Blount said. “And, I turned around to the other woman she had a knife in her hand and she stabbed me in the face and just took off running.”
Blount, covered in blood, ran after Kauffmann. As they both ran through a crowded boardwalk Blount saw a Clearwater officer standing on Pier 60.
“I hollered at him I said, ‘hey officer this woman just stabbed me in the face’ and the officer ran after her and caught her,” Blount said.
Kauffmann is a convicted felon that spent nearly six years in prison for Aggravated Battery with a deadly weapon. She was released from prison in 2013 according to inmate records.
Pinellas County records show Kauffmann was arrested less than two weeks before Blount was stabbed for simple battery.
Blount can’t believe this all happened on Clearwater Beach.
“I was very surprised that something like that would happen,” Blount said. “I should feel very safe going to Clearwater Beach it should be a safe area for me you shouldn’t have to worry about somebody walking up to you offering you drugs stabbing you in the face.”
Blount has a newborn baby boy and a 14-month-old son. He doesn’t have health insurance.
“They said it was going to be a couple thousand dollars for the stitches and everything. So, this is going to be a big burden on me,” Blount said.
If you want to help Blount’s family click here.
Kauffmann remains in the Pinellas County jail facing multiple felony charges.
