A Cuban native was arrested Saturday after police said he stabbed a man in the back for reportedly having an affair with his wife.
Hugo Paz Rodriguez, 48, walked behind a man in the bar area of Gumby’s Pizza, located at 2028 SW 34th St., at about 7:30 p.m. and stabbed him in his lower back with one of the two knives concealed under his arms, according to a Gainesville Police report.
He dropped his second knife during the attack.
As Rodriguez tried stabbing the man again, one witness grabbed him and pulled him away while another snatched the knife away, according to the report.
Rodriguez then ran away from the pizza restaurant and called 911 to say he “did something bad” and needed to pay for it, said GPD spokesperson Officer Ben Tobias. He told the operator that police could find him lying down in the parking lot of the Campus USA Credit Union on the other side of Southwest 34th Street.
Police found Rodriguez and arrested him without any trouble, Tobias said.
Witnesses told police that Rodriguez attacked the man because the victim had an affair with Rodriguez’s wife. According to the report, Rodriguez took a baseball bat to his wife’s car last Tuesday because of her infidelity.
Rodriguez’s wife told police that her husband was very unstable due to the death of his mother, recent heart surgery and her affairs with other men, according to the report.
The victim was transported to UF Health Shands Hospital with a major injury to his lower back. Tobias said he is expected to survive.
As of press time, Rodriguez remains in the Alachua County Jail in lieu of a $500,000 bond and faces a charge of attempted murder.
