Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Jermaine David Bright, 42, was arrested early this morning and charged with attempted first-degree murder after allegedly stabbing a man in the parking lot of GRACE Marketplace.

Gainesville Police Department officers responded early this morning to a call about a man who had been stabbed at GRACE Marketplace and found a male victim bleeding from multiple wounds, with severe lacerations to his back and shoulder and a fracture in his spine. Officers rendered first aid until EMS arrived and transported the victim to the hospital. The victim is reportedly in stable condition at this time.

A witness reportedly told an officer that he and Bright went to the parking lot to fight the victim, but Bright suddenly knocked the victim down, straddled him, and began stabbing the victim with a pocket knife. The witness said Bright fled the scene after the attack.

Another witness told an officer that Bright had approached her while she was sitting in her car and that he was “in an excited state” and said he had hurt someone while protecting another person. She said she noticed a cut on Bright’s finger that had not been there the last time she’d seen him, a few hours earlier.

Officers reviewed video footage and conducted interviews and eventually found Bright in a bathroom in a dormitory at GRACE.

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Post Miranda, Bright reportedly said at first that the first witness had attacked the victim with a knife, but he later acknowledged that he had stabbed the victim multiple times. He reportedly said that the victim had charged at the witness, so he attacked the victim to protect the witness and his intention was to scare the victim. Bright reportedly had blood on his pants and a small cut on his finger, which he said had been cut on a fence.

The first witness subsequently told an officer that the victim had never charged at him and wasn’t even close to him when Bright attacked the victim.

Bright is also facing a sworn complaint for grand theft after allegedly asking to test ride a bicycle valued at $1,400 on June 12 and not returning it; he was identified with the driver’s license that he left at the store as collateral.

Bright has at least seven felony convictions (four violent) and 10 misdemeanor convictions (three violent). He has served five state prison sentences, all for Alachua County charges, with his most recent release in 2018. Two months after the release, he was sentenced to two years of mental health probation after pleading to battery by a detainee.

Bail information is not yet available.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.