Machete-Wielding Brooksville Man in HCSO Custody

A tip from a regular reader of its social media page helped deputies from the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) catch up with a Brooksville man accused of wielding a machete to severely injure his boyfriend.

HCSO Community Relations Coordinator Kasey Johnson said that just after 11 p.m. on March 11, deputies responded to a call from a Brooksville man reporting that his boyfriend had stabbed him in the face and arms with a machete and was chasing him at the residence they shared on the 16000 block of Fort Myers Street.

At the scene, responding deputies found the victim at a nearby residence covered in blood with a large laceration on the left side of his face.

According to the man, his live-in boyfriend, 24-year-old Douglas Albert Fullerton, had taken his digital devices, saw his text messages and confronted him about them.

The victim said that Fullerton went into another room, retrieved a large machete and hit him in the face with it.

The man said that he grabbed the blade to block himself from being hit again when Fullerton dropped the machete, went into the kitchen and returned with a kitchen knife to continue stabbing him with it.
As he turned to run away, the victim felt the knife hit his back.

Finally, the man was able to escape to a bathroom, where he called 9-1-1 for help. He said he heard Fullerton shout, “Tell them you got into an accident, I don’t wanna go back to jail,” on the other side of the bathroom door.

Eventually, the victim fled the residence altogether but told deputies that Fullerton began to chase him. His accused attacker was no longer in sight when the victim reached a neighboring residence, where he stayed until deputies arrived.

Afterward, the injured man was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was treated for a deep laceration to his face, facial fractures and minor cuts to his hands and back.

In the meantime, deputies remained on the scene along with a K-9 Unit to search for Fullerton but were unsuccessful.

An arrest warrant for Aggravated Battery with a Deadly Weapon was issued for Fullerton. Investigators also learned that Fullerton had an active warrant for violating his parole in connection with a charge of possession of a controlled substance.

Acting on a tip from a reader of the HCSO social media page, deputies arrested Fullerton and charged him with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, resisting arrest, possession and use of drug equipment, tampering with physical evidence, threatening someone with death or serious bodily harm and violation of parole.

He is being held at the Hernando County Detention Center on bond.