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State Releases Video Of Knife Attack At Tampa Homeless Shelter

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 19, 2008

TAMPA - Prosecutors have released a video of the stabbing of a homeless man this year that resulted in a charge of felony attempted murder.

Dwight Earl Bonds, 42, no known address, has been in Orient Road Jail since his arrest in April, with bail set at $50,000. He is scheduled to be tried on the attempted-murder charge in August, online court records state. No plea has been entered, according to these records.

Bonds is accused of stabbing Douglas Fletcher, 42, in the face and chest at a Salvation Army shelter at 1514 N. Florida Ave. on March 29.

Tampa police say Fletcher only knew Bonds by the nickname "Baldie" when they got into a dispute that day. Bonds grew irate after Fletcher and some other men declined to buy a bus pass from him, a police report states.

Bonds showed up later that day at the Salvation Army shelter, asked to see Fletcher and attacked him, stabbing him in the face and chest, police said. The injuries were not life-threatening, although the facial wound severed a nerve that controls motor function. A doctor at Tampa General Hospital was able to reconnect the nerve, the report states.

The video, obtained today through a public records request, shows Bonds chasing Fletcher and swinging at him with what appears to be a knife.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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