For Immediate Release 

April 2, 2018

SANTA ROSA BEACH, Fla— A viscous attack leads to the arrest of a Crestview man for aggravated battery, resisting an officer with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer.

Just before 5:00 PM on Saturday, March 31, 2018, the Walton County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call in reference to a physical disturbance on E. Mitchell Avenue in Santa Rosa Beach. When deputies arrived on scene, they found a man covered in blood. The victim stated that he was gardening in the front yard of his home when the suspect suddenly attacked him.

During the struggle, the suspect punched the victim in the nose and kneed him in his chest before wrestling the victim’s gardening shears out of his hands. The suspect began beating and stabbing the resident with the shears, forcibly knocking out one of the victim’s front teeth and causing multiple lacerations to the back of the victim’s head. The suspect only stopped when a bystander stepped in and attempted to take the gardening shears out of his hands.

The suspect then fled the scene and was later found a short distance away from the victim’s house, naked in Choctawhatchee Bay. When WCSO deputies attempted to retrieve the suspect from the water, he began punching the deputies and attempting to pull them under water. After a brief struggle, deputies were able to apprehend the suspect, who was later identified as John Kyle Botelho, 26, of Crestview, Florida.

Botelho is charged with resisting an officer with violence, aggravated battery on a person using a deadly weapon and battery on a law enforcement officer. He was transported and booked into the Walton County Jail.