Walmart parking lot argument leads to stabbing arrest
Suspect once sentenced to life in prison
An argument in the parking lot of a Central Florida Walmart spilled over to a fight in the produce section that led to one man’s arrest for aggravated battery and assault.
Michael J. Brown, 67, of New Smyrna Beach, was arrested after the incident at the Walmart Supercenter on State Road 44 just west of Interstate 95 on Tuesday, according to a press release from the New Smyrna Beach Police Department.
A man, who police did not identify, and his wife and mother were waiting for a vehicle to leave a spot in the parking lot and had stopped in the driving lane in their car with their blinker on, according to victim statements. At that point, a man on a motorcycle, later identified as Brown by the victim, rode past the victim’s car stating that they were “not allowed to park there because they were in his way,” the police report stated.
The victims said they were just waiting for a spot, which they eventually parked in before venturing inside the store. It was in the produce section that a verbal altercation between the man and the suspect occurred, culminating in the suspect reportedly drawing a knife, swinging it toward the neck of the victim, according to both the man and his wife. They said the victim, who was also holding a dog, blocked the suspect’s swinging arm with his hand, which they later noticed had sustained a laceration to his pinky finger, according to the police report.
What witnesses said was a knife fell to the floor then, which the suspect then picked up. He then left the store. The victim took video of the suspect riding away on a motorcycle, and police were able to track down the owner of the motorcycle, Brown, through its license plate.
Investigators reviewed footage from Walmart security to confirm the reported altercation, although they could not confirm the object that fell to the floor was indeed a knife. Emergency services arrived to treat the lacerated pinky, police said.
After making contact with Brown, both the victim and his wife were able to identify him as the person with whom they had the altercation, and Brown was placed into custody.
No knife was recovered, police said.
Brown was booked on two felony charges of
aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault, and released Tuesday evening on $7,500 bond, according to Volusia County Jail records.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, which assisted in locating Brown at his residence, sent a release later detailing Brown’s previous incarceration after being sentenced to life in prison for his role in a 1973 murder. Brown, who was 18 at the time, became eligible for parole after 25 years of his life sentence and was released from Florida State Prison in 2010, the sheriff ’s office stated.
Brown’s conviction came after a murder-for-hire plot over a property dispute that killed 77-year-old Vivan Oyler in Edgewater. She was buried in the woods — possibly still alive, the sheriff ’s office stated. Oyler was a retired schoolteacher and founded the Southeast Volusia Humane Society in 1957.