KEY WEST, Fla. — A 59-year-old homeless man was arrested Thursday night after he attacked his homeless girlfriend with a hammer in a Burger King parking lot, Florida Keys deputies said.
Mark Bucher faces charges of aggravated battery, resisting arrest and tampering with evidence.
Monroe County Sheriff's Office spokesman Adam Linhardt said Bucher beat his 57-year-old girlfriend with the hammer and then fled with the tool.
Deputies found Bucher a short time later walking north on U.S. Highway 1.
"He had fresh dried blood on his arms," Linhardt said.
Deputies also found the hammer in some nearby bushes.
"It appeared to have hair and blood stains on the handle," Linhardt said.
The woman told deputies she was celebrating her one-year anniversary with Bucher when he became intoxicated and argumentative. She said Bucher threatened to kill her and repeatedly struck her with the hammer. She was taken to Lower Keys Medical Center, but her condition wasn't immediately known.
Linhardt said two witnesses corroborated the woman's version of events.
Bucher was being held without bond at the county jail.