When the groom is stabbed and a man jumps off a balcony, the wedding party is over
This wasn’t in the invitation.
A Dec. 15 wedding reception at a Key West restaurant ended with the groom stabbed in the thigh, a knife-wielding groomsman falling off a balcony, one person fainting, and several people shouting when police arrived, according to the incident report.
No one has been arrested.
The only suspect, groomsman Jovanny Arredondo, 29, of Scottsdale, Arizona, was airlifted with a possible head injury to Miami’s Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
The groom, Nicolas Camargo, 29, of Crestview, Florida, didn’t want to pursue criminal charges, but detectives said Arredondo needs to be arrested for other things aside from the stabbing.
Arredondo committed criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, and improper exhibition of a dangerous weapon, detectives said.
“This case does not meet the criteria of aggravated battery because there was no intent by the suspect, Arredondo, to intentionally harm the victim, Camargo,” Detective Darnell Sealey wrote in a report.
Arredondo ruined the party, police said, when during a round of shots at the bar of First Flight, 301 Whitehead St., he pulled out a Benchmade Infidel automatic knife with a double-edged, dagger-style blade about 4 inches long, and showed off his skills.
Camargo warned him to put it away, but Arredondo waved it in the air and made stabbing motions at the groom, striking him in the upper left thigh.
Arredondo then “in a panic” jumped off the second-floor balcony, breaking the first-floor and second-floor balcony railings on his way down and striking his head on the brick walkway below, police said. He then took off, but police caught up with him in the 900 block of Duval Street.
Arredondo caused at least $1,100 worth of damage to the restaurant, police said.
The stabbing ended the wedding party, and First Flight closed early.
“The guests were very upset when we arrived,” police wrote in their report.
This story was originally published December 20, 2018 at 3:44 PM with the headline "When the groom is stabbed and a man jumps off a balcony, the wedding party is over."
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