WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — Two people and a dog were seriously injured in a stabbing in Winter Haven on Wednesday morning, according to police.
Police said the two victims are hospitalized at Lakeland Regional with serious injuries, while the dog, a 2-year-old Pit Bull named Bruiser, is not expected to survive.
Officers were called to Abbey Lane Apartments just after 2 a.m. and found the two victims. Police said the suspect, 25-year-old William Lee Smith, is facing two counts of attempted murder.
According to the police department, it happened at an apartment that Smith shares with a family member. On Wednesday, police said Smith got into a "confrontation" with the family member and tried to strangle them.
While Smith tried to strangle that victim, police said two men and a woman knocked on the apartment door. Police said he stopped when the visitors got to the apartment and went into a bedroom when they came inside.
Police said the three visitors sat down and talked with the family member who shared the apartment with Smith.
Police said Smith tried to get the woman visiting to come to the bedroom to talk to him, but she continuously told him to wait, making him "more and more upset."
A short time later, police said Smith came out of the room with plastic wrapped around various parts of his body and attacked the two men and the dog with a large knife.
During the attack, police said the victims ran out of the apartment through a back door. Smith ran out of the front door.
Officers said they found Smith still covered in plastic and the knife hidden in a bush near him when they arrived.
The dog belonged to one of the victims, police said.
Smith is charged with two counts of attempted felony murder with a weapon, tampering with evidence, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, animal cruelty, domestic battery, and resisting an officer without violence.
