A Gainesville man was arrested early Monday morning after police say he attacked another man with a traffic cone near a downtown plaza.
The incident started just after midnight when Bruce Mullins, a 62-year-old Gainesville resident, approached a homeless man lying on a sidewalk near the Bo Diddley Community Plaza, located on East University Avenue, and allegedly struck him with an orange traffic cone, according to a GPD arrest report.
The victim leapt to his feet and ran across a nearby road as Mullins chased after him with the cone.
The victim tried to pull out a pocketknife to defend himself, but Mullins struck him “three to four times,” according to the report, before fleeing the scene.
At about 12:30 a.m., the victim called Gainesville Police on a pay phone to report the attack. After officers arrived at the plaza, they found Mullins smoking a cigarette nearby, said GPD spokesman Officer Ben Tobias.
During questioning, Mullins said he didn’t have the cone and only fought the victim verbally.
Mullins later changed his story, saying he did have the cone and swung it at the victim when he pulled out his knife and began “jabbing at me,” Mullins said in the report.
Tobias was not able to confirm if Mullins was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the incident.
Police arrested Mullins on a simple battery charge and booked him into the Alachua County Jail at about 1:30 a.m. on Monday. He was released later that afternoon.
Contact Chris Alcantara at calcantara@alligator.org.
