DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A 13-year-old boy attacked near the Slingshot ride on the Daytona Beach boardwalk described the moment a man randomly ran up to him and slashed his neck.
Sullivan Clark told News 6 he and his family were out at the boardwalk over the weekend when he said a man, identified as Jermaine Long, came up to him from behind and tried to cut his throat.
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“While I was on the phone, I turned my head up to look at the Slingshot thing, and then boom. Before I knew it, he had cut me. He missed my jugular though,” he said. “Then he just ran, and I didn’t even see him. I didn’t know what he looked like or anything.”
The boy’s mother, Lori Clarke, reached out to News 6 on Monday and said the family had been in Daytona Beach for their annual trip to the Daytona 500.
“There was a ton of people around. Tons of people at the Slingshot. It was well-lit. We felt safe,” Lori said.
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Lori said she and her husband, Jerod Clarke, and Sullivan stopped to watch the Slingshot ride when out of nowhere, Long walked up to the teen.
“He walked up and made this motion and so I thought he was stealing the phone and I yelled at him and ran after him and when I turned around I realized no, my son was cut,” Lori said.
Sullivan was taken to the hospital, where he received 13 stitches.
“One more millimeter and he probably wouldn’t have made it,” Lori said.
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Long was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and appeared in court Tuesday where a judge ordered he be held without bond.
Long is a registered sex offender with a lengthy criminal history in Volusia County. His most recent arrest was in January after being accused of trying to hurt two men with a knife then hitting them with a large pole.
Prosecutors dropped those charges, and Long was released from jail just four days before the incident with the Clarke family.