Deltona, FL – A Deltona man is behind bars for stabbing another man in the face soon after deputies say he lost at pool to him.
40-year-old Michael S. Ruscoe faces an aggravated battery with a deadly weapon charge and is held on $10,000 bond at Volusia County Jail as of 7pm Monday.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office arrested Ruscoe early Saturday morning at Blackie’s Pub on Enterprise Road in Deltona. That’s where deputies also found the victim – a 46-year-old Deltona man – with a knife cut on his face that stretched from his right eyebrow to the top of his lip.
According to the arrest report, responding deputies found Ruscoe laying on the bar floor covered in blood with several bar patrons between him and the victim.
Witnesses told VCSO that Ruscoe and the victim had met for the first time that night and that Ruscoe got angry and started a fight with the victim after losing at pool.
One of the witnesses claims the victim was drinking at the bar when Ruscoe came up from behind, put him in a headlock and then stabbed the victim in the face.
A bartender told VCSO that just before the stabbing, she heard Ruscoe challenge the victim to go outside and fight but the victim refused to go with him.
Paramedics took the victim from the scene to Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford for treatment. Deputies say the victim will need plastic surgery to repair the cut.
The victim was alert and conscious before he went to the hospital but was unable to tell VCSO what had happened until after he got to the hospital, per the report.
Deputies say the victim wanted to press charges and that Ruscoe attacked him because he had beaten Ruscoe in several games of pool.
When questioned, Ruscoe appeared to be drunk and was screaming that he had been attacked, according to VCSO. The deputy also noted that Ruscoe’s screams didn’t appear to make any sense and that Ruscoe refused to go to the hospital for treatment after paramedics had checked him out.
The knife used in the attack was found lying on the ground in the parking lot outside of the bar after one of the patrons grabbed it from Ruscoe, according to the report.
Deputies say Ruscoe had to be hobbled in the squad car because he was out of control and had to have his gown top taken away while in a holding cell because he tried to choke himself with it.
Michael S. Ruscoe (mugshot courtesy VCJ)
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