Volusia sheriff's detectives charge suspect in stabbing of sleeping Deltona homeless man
Volusia County sheriff's detectives have charged a man who they say stabbed a sleeping homeless man outside a Deltona bank in the early morning hours of April 8.
David Vazquez, 54, of Deltona, was charged with attempted murder and taken to the Volusia County Branch Jail while awaiting his first appearance in court Saturday morning.
Detectives say on April 8, a 73-year-old man with no permanent address was sleeping outside the Bank of America branch at 1241 E. Normandy Blvd.
Just after 2 a.m., the victim awoke to a masked man stabbing him in the chest. The homeless man was able to fight back and wrestle the assailant to the ground, sustaining defense wounds to his hands. The victim briefly pulled the mask away from the suspect's face.
The suspect fle, heading north from the scene near the corner of Normandy and Providence boulevards.
When deputies responded to the scene, they administered first aid to the victim. A sheriff's K-9 dog tracked the suspect toward a Cumberland Farms gas station across the street, where deputies later obtained surveillance footage that helped identify Vazquez, who lived a few blocks away.
The victim told deputies he knew of no reason why anyone would attack him. He was treated for "significant but ultimately not life-threatening" injuries at an area hospital, according to the sheriff's office.
Vazquez has 36 felony arrests and was described as "often having sudden outbursts," sheriff's spokesman Andrew Gant said.
He denied committing the attack, Gant said.
However, when deputies and detectives searched his home, they found a pair of blue jeans splattered with blood and a jacket hanging in a closet with a large red stain. The clothing matched what Vazquez was wearing in the surveillance footage, Gant said, while authorities also collected several knives and a ski mask.
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This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Suspect named in unprovoked stabbing of sleeping homeless Deltona man
