Police: Woman slashed man's face with box cutter at Pier 60

CLEARWATER (FOX 13) - Officers arrested a Clearwater woman near Pier 60 Wednesday for allegedly slicing a man’s face with a box cutter.

Officers say it started in the public parking area near Pier 60. Auztin Blount tells FOX 13 he and his girlfriend were sitting on the seawall near the pier when Kristi Lynn Kauffmann, 36, approached.

Blount says Kauffmann first tried to sell him a flower to give to his girlfriend. When he said no, she then asked him to sell her drugs.

“I told her very politely, ‘No thank you. I don't want to buy any flowers,'” Blount said. “I told her, ‘I don't have any drugs.’ She said, ‘I have $20. I'll take anything. What can you get me?’ I was like, ‘No I don't have anything.’”

That’s when he says she became angry.

“She pulled out a knife and she stabbed me in my face, slashed down my face and cut me to my bone. Then she took off running,” Boyle said. “When she sliced me I honestly thought she had punched me. I felt warm stuff running down my face.”

He began running after her and quickly spotted Clearwater Police Sergeant Boyle. Sgt. Boyle was able to catch and arrest Kauffmann.

Clearwater PD says after she was arrested, she tried to kick Sgt. Boyle in the face, hitting him in the chest. She also tried to kick out the window of the officer’s cruiser.

She faces charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, battery on a law enforcement officer, and breach of peace. Police say she was arrested last week on a drug charge. She also has past convictions for aggravated assault, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and attempted murder.

She spent more than five years in jail but was released in 2013.

Auztin, a father of two, faces a future of plastic surgery to diminish his scar, but it will likely always be visible on his face. He's thankful it wasn't worse. 

"I also have two kids that depend on me to come home to every day and put food on the table," he said. "I'm lucky it didn't hit an artery or something or in my eye or something like that."

A gofundme.com page has been set up to help Auztin with his medical costs. Note: Link contains images of Auztin's injury. Viewer discretion advised.