A pre-dawn confrontation near North Miami Beach left a homeless man with a skull fracture and a homeless woman facing an attempted-murder charge, according to authorities. Investigators say the woman struck him with a stick roughly 20 times before deputies found her sitting at a bus stop across the street.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office deputies found the injured man shortly after 6:30 a.m. Saturday near Northeast Seventh Avenue and 167th Street, according to Local 10. The victim was taken first to Jackson North Medical Center and later to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center, while an arrest report said he tried to grab the stick and the attacker's black sweatpants to stop the beating.
The alleged attacker was identified as 46-year-old Viola Sharonda Patterson, who was arrested later Saturday in northeastern Miami-Dade County. As detailed by Local 10, the arrest report said Patterson was found “sitting alone at the bus stop” across the street and initially gave investigators the name Melissa Michelle Ethridge before fingerprint analysis revealed her identity. She was booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on charges of second-degree attempted murder, obstruction by a disguised person and giving a false name or identification to law enforcement, with bond set at $8,500.
What The Charges Mean
Patterson has not been convicted, and the allegations will be tested in court. Florida's criminal-attempt statute covers an act toward committing an offense that fails or is prevented, while the state's second-degree murder statute addresses killings involving an imminently dangerous act showing a depraved mind. The separate false-identification allegation corresponds to Florida's law barring a detained person from giving law enforcement a false name.
