David Martinez. (Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation)
A Florida man has been arrested for threatening to cut the “gay” out of his own brother with a kitchen knife.
Police in Miami-Dade in southeast Florida were called to the home of 35-year-old David Martinez last Thursday evening (24 February) amid a “violent dispute” between the brothers.
The victim told investigators that Martinez was sharpening a kitchen knife as he threatened to kill him in his Miami home, according to Miami-Dade Police Department records. The two had been tussling over “property”, officers noted.
The brother claimed that the defendant had been “acting strangely” since Wednesday evening before the dust-up took place. Martinez said he was going to “cut the ‘gay’ out of him” as the brother attempted to flee from the backdoor entrance.
Martinez followed him outside and grabbed him, barking at him to go back inside.
“In fear,” the report said, the brother went back inside before eventually being able to sneak out of the property and ask a friend to phone the police.
Cops found an “irate and uncooperative” Martinez still at the house. A struggle ensued during the arrest, where the “defendant was grabbed by officers and redirected to the ground,” the report said.
As attempts to subdue Martinez were in vain, officers were forced to call for backup. “Officers waited until other units arrived and took the defendant into custody without further incident,” the file said, adding that police also confiscated a knife from the home.
Martinex was busted on felony assault, kidnapping and false imprisonment, meaning that he potentially faces life behind bars.
On top of this, he was also charged with two counts of resisting a law enforcement officer without violence to his person, a misdemeanour punishable with a $1,000 fine and one year in prison.
He remains in custody and is being held in a Miami-Dade county jail in lieu of a $22,000 bond.
The incident comes after a back-bitingly anti-LGBT+ bill is winding through the Florida legislator, one backed by governor Ron DeSantis. The so-called “Don’t Say Gay” measure, passed Monday by a top senate committee, would ban merely discussing LGBT+ identities in the classroom.