Tallahassee man charged with attempted murder for allegedly stabbing neighbor

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - A Tallahassee man was charged with attempted murder after stabbing his neighbor Sunday during an argument.

Michael Kane, 66, was booked into the Leon County Detention Facility over the weekend. According to his arrest affidavit, the Tallahassee resident admitted to officers that he stabbed his neighbor, but he said it was in self defense and “to save his life.”

“I was assaulted, and I defended myself,” Kane told investigators, according the affidavit.

It all stemmed from an argument just before 2 p.m. Sunday at a residence in the northwest end of the capital city near San Luis Mission Park.

While the victim had a few people over to her home that afternoon, one of her guests allegedly moved a chair and a grill into a shady area on Kane’s property, according to the arrest affidavit. As soon as the visitors left, Kane allegedly stepped outside his home “raising hell” and holding a sheathed knife in his hand, according to the documents.

He started yelling at the victim while she stood outside with a group of children, according to the affidavit. He allegedly threw the chair and grill at the woman’s home and said she needed to keep her belongings on her side of the property line. Then, the woman moved the kids inside her home, according to the affidavit.

When she returned outside, the argument escalated, according to documents.

Kane alleged the woman threatened to beat him up when she stepped out on her porch, and an argument ensued. At some point, the victim threw water at him from a pet bowl that was sitting nearby, according to the documents.

Then, he allegedly stepped towards her and stabbed her multiple times, in her torso and arm. The woman also sustained injuries to her hands as she attempted to defend herself, the affidavit said.

Tallahassee Police received a call reporting the incident and an officer arrived at the residences on Continental Avenue around 1:44 p.m. According to the affidavit, he saw Kane outside. The man seemed distressed.

“Kane was extremely emotional, was shaking all over, and talking in an excited tone,” the officer wrote in the arrest affidavit.

Kane was yelling into a phone, and the officer heard him say “something to the effect of having the right to defend himself,” according to the affidavit. That’s when the TPD officer addressed Kane.

“I asked him where the other person was that was involved and he pointed,” the arrest affidavit said.

The officer followed Kane’s direction to a neighboring unit, where officials found the victim bleeding from her left shoulder and torso, the documents state. The officer assessed that her injuries “did not appear to be bleeding at a rate that would cause immediate (within minutes) life-threatening blood loss,” according to the affidavit, and summoned emergency medical services.

After speaking with officers, Kane said he and his neighbor had been at odds for the entirety of the seven years they lived by one another, according to the documents. However, the woman told investigators the pair used to be on friendly terms, but “at some point, Kane began to be confrontational.” She told investigators Kane had previously threatened her while holding an axe, and officers found “a documented incident between the two where an axe was involved,” the affidavit said.

Ultimately, Kane defended his actions to investigators, citing escalating tensions between himself and the victim. He said he defended his life.

“Kane said he felt threatened because [the victim] is much larger than him and he was tired of dealing with her,” the document says.

The Tallahassee man told investigators he was afraid at first that she would be armed with a weapon, and then when he saw that she was about to throw water at him, he told her not to, the document said. As he recounted the events, he became agitated, according to the affidavit.

“As he said this part his teeth clenched, and he got very angry almost like he was reliving the moment as it happened,” the affidavit said.

He said he missed the first time he swung at her with the knife, so he took a second swing and hit her, according to the affidavit. Kane was able to tell officers where to find the knife on the ground outside his home. Police noted they found a knife at that spot with “fresh blood” on it.

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