18-year-old follows woman around Publix, stabs her in neck with scissors, Florida cops say

An 18-year-old used a wine bottle and a pair of scissors in an “unprovoked” attack on a woman at a Publix supermarket, leading to an attempted murder charge, according to Florida authorities.

Gabriel Solomon was seen on security footage following a 62-year-old Publix shopper as she walked around the deli section with a cart the evening of Feb. 26, the Fort Myers Police Department said in an arrest affidavit.

He “pretended” to look at other items on a nearby shelf before he came up behind her with scissors and stabbed her in the back of the neck, police said, based on video footage.

The woman grabbed her neck and ran into the next aisle as Solomon went to get another weapon — one of two wine bottles he had stashed nearby, police said. He was then seen on camera following her into the next aisle and throwing the wine bottle at her face, according to officers.

The woman pushed her shopping cart at Solomon and held her hands up so it didn’t hit her in the face, but Solomon rushed at her again, police said.

The cart blocked him, then a bystander tackled him to the floor and pinned him down until employees got there, according to police.

The 62-year-old woman appeared to be in shock and was “extremely overwhelmed” when first responders arrived, as she wasn’t sure why her neck hurt or why her hand was injured, according to the affidavit. Medical personnel took her to a hospital, according to police.

When officers found Solomon sitting outside the Publix in Lehigh Acres, he told them to detain him but initially refused to speak, before opening up in the patrol car, police said.

He told officers he had “voices and thoughts in his head” and that they told him to find someone shopping at Publix that night, according to police.

Officers wrote in the affidavit that Solomon told them “committing the acts felt good.” He and the woman didn’t know each other, police said.

Solomon’s dad advised officers his son had developed behavioral issues in the past couple years.

Lehigh Acres is in Lee County in southwest Florida, about a 50-mile drive northeast from Naples.