CAPE CORAL, Fla. — On Wednesday, as I was speaking with neighbors, off 47TH Terrace in Cape Coral, I saw the man who police said was stabbed by a Cape Coral woman, who Cape Coral Police has identified as 29-year-old Sabrina O'Neil.
The victim told me he only knew the woman who attacked him, as a neighbor who lived on the other side of a fence.
The man who was stabbed by O'Neill tells me that he was stabbed in the chest and also had burn marks on his stomach from hot water O'Neil allegedly threw on him from over the fence.
The man told me he had no idea what influenced his neighbor to do this.
The so-called "erratic" behavior such as this, is what police think about when encountering an armed suspect, according to Florida Gulf Coast University Forensic Studies Professor David Thomas.
"What is the nature of the threat? Does the person have a weapon? What is the nature of that weapon, what is the distance between the officer/ deputy and the suspect? All of those things are playing into your mind and you're trying to make an assessment of whether you are safe or whether a citizen is safe," said Thomas.
Public Information Officer for Cape Coral Police Department, Julie Green said in a press release, officers attempted to make contact with Sabrina O’Neill, at her apartment.
Green said she eventually emerged with a gun in her hands and immediately pointed the gun at the officers.
She said the officers on the scene fired their duty weapons that struck O’Neill multiple times.
Hours after the encounter, Cape Coral Police Chief
Anthony Sizemore defended the actions of his officers, citing body-worn camera video that has not yet been made public.
“I have seen the body-worn camera footage as worn by our officers and I can tell you it was textbook training,” said Sizemore.
Thomas told me that along with making sure they are taking care of the officer's mental health, I'm also learned that people in the neighborhood off 47TH Terrace are also being impacted by the incident.
Stephany Sanabria, who lives just across the street is the mother of two young children and says moments like this make her second-guess the neighborhood she lives in.
“It's usually quiet but it definitely worries me because I'm at work all day so when you get home and you see all these police cars you don’t know what’s happening, of course, it gets me worried it's crazy how things can happen,” said Sanabria.
