A 70-year-old shopper standing in a Publix aisle in Punta Gorda, Florida, felt what seemed like a punch to the left side of his face on Oct. 10. In the police account published by Oxygen, the man turned around to see Ramsey Thomas Lyons staring at him with a box cutter in his hand.
When the shopper took his hands away from his face, he saw blood and realized he had been stabbed, The Independent reported. He slowly backed away, then ran toward the customer service desk. He later told police he wanted to press charges.
A cut approximately four to six inches long extended from his cheek to his neck, and he had a smaller cut on his upper chest. He was hospitalized for the injuries and needed multiple stitches for the wound that crossed his jawline.
Lyons was arrested and charged with aggravated battery on a person 65 years or older.
In His Words
Punta Gorda police found Lyons near the store entrance with his hands on his head and detained him. Officers also recovered a box cutter at the store, Law&Crime reported in its account of the arrest affidavit. Lyons said he did not know the shopper and had chosen him at random.
In the interview described by Oxygen, Lyons said he had considered attacking someone for two days before mustering the nerve to carry it out, and had entered the store with the intention of killing someone. He said the shopper looked like he was from the 1960s, a period he disliked, and used the phrase “acing him out.”
Asked to explain, he answered, “murder him.”
“I just pulled it out of my pocket and stuck it in his neck,” Lyons said about the box cutter. He explained that he threw it down the aisle so arriving police would not be frightened and use a Taser or gun.
He also claimed to have an undiagnosed mental illness. That was his own description, rather than a verified diagnosis.
Oxygen reported that Lyons pleaded not guilty. The Charlotte County clerk’s custody entry lists his location as the county jail.
All parties are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.