MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — A Miami Beach octogenarian is facing an attempted murder charge after police said he stabbed a worker at his senior public housing complex in the city’s South of Fifth neighborhood.
The incident happened at Rebecca Towers, located at 150 Alton Road and owned by the Miami Beach Housing Authority, at around 10:45 Monday morning.
An arrest report states that the victim, listed in public salary databases as an asset manager with the public housing agency, was last seen going to the 10th floor to speak with 83-year-old tenant John Gula about “a failed inspection and the state of his apartment.”
Police said CCTV footage showed the victim speaking with Gula and his girlfriend when Gula, wearing a U.S. Navy shirt and light-colored pants, pulled out a folding knife and attacked the woman in the doorway of his apartment as his girlfriend attempted to restrain him.
“The victim is seen to (sic) wrestle the knife away from (Gula) and through (sic) it down the hall,“ a Miami Beach Police Department officer wrote, describing the video. ”The victim was then seen staggering away, holding her chest while a large amount of blood is seen pouring from her injuries onto the floor and hallway. (Gula) follows behind her closely and is then shown producing another folding knife from his right pocket and once again attempts to lunge at the victim from behind her.“
Police said Gula’s girlfriend tried stopping him again and Gula was then “seen walking away with the second knife in his hand.”
A resident heard the victim screaming and opened her door to see her “yelling for help while holding her chest and bleeding,” police said.
The resident pulled the worker inside and called for help. Medics, who found the woman unresponsive, took her to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center with a stab wound to the chest and a possible cut on her head.
Authorities said Gula went to his girlfriend’s apartment on the seventh floor and officers took him into custody.
According to the report, inside, “detectives located the victim’s glasses covered in blood, and the light-colored pants he was observed wearing (on video).”
“The pants were submerged in a bucket of water, located in the shower area of the bathroom,” the report states. “The water in the bucket appeared to have a pink-reddish color.”
Gula, identified in the MBPD report as a military veteran born in Washington state, doesn’t have a prior criminal record in Miami-Dade County, according to court records.
A Miami-Dade judge found probable cause Tuesday to charge Gula with attempted second-degree murder and ordered he be held without bond.
Local 10 News is reaching out to authorities to get an update on the woman’s condition as of Tuesday morning.
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