Sex offender charged with slashing 13-year-old’s neck on Daytona Beach Boardwalk in random attack

A Florida sex offender is behind bars after allegedly slashing a teenager’s neck while he walked along the Daytona Beach Boardwalk with his parents on Valentine’s Day.

After spending the day at the Daytona International Speedway, Sullivan Clarke, 13, was talking on the phone while walking back to his hotel with his parents.

His mother, Lori, saw a man approach Sullivan and quickly slice his neck.

“I thought he was stealing Sully’s phone,” Lori told affiliate FOX 35 Orlando. “As soon as he slashed him, I yelled and I said ‘Hey!’”

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Sullivan’s father, Jerod, said as soon as they realized what happened, they could see their son’s neck “gashed wide open.”

Doctors told the family if the cut had been one millimeter deeper, the attack would have been fatal.

“The crazy thing is, I turned at the perfect time because I was on the phone and I happened to be looking up at the slingshot [ride] and I turned,” Sullivan said. “That’s how he got the side of my neck and not right [in the center].”

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The suspect, identified as Jermaine Lynn Long, 44, of Daytona Beach, was later found hiding near an overpass on the pier.

Long was arrested and is charged with two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, according to Volusia County Jail records. He was granted a $50,000 surety bond.

Jail records show Long was released from jail just four days before the attack and had pending charges from an incident in January for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and touching or striking another person.

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He also has a lengthy criminal history, with prior arrests including:

• Oct. 19, 2022: Refusing to leave public property
• Oct. 30, 2022: Battery, possession of paraphernalia, possession of a schedule II substance, introducing contraband into a detention facility, and resisting a transit agent while committing theft
• March 2, 2023: Failure of sex offender to properly register and refusing to leave public property
• Sept. 29, 2025: Petit theft
• Oct. 16, 2025: Possession of paraphernalia and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription
• Dec. 15, 2025: Refusing to leave public property

A local worker, Andrew Walker, told FOX 35 he was “blown away” because he had spoken with Long minutes before the attack.

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“I see the man come down in cuffs, and I was like blown away because that was the same dude I saw walking past me, that just stabbed somebody in the neck,” Walker said.

Long has refused to talk to investigators and police have not yet determined a motive, according to the outlet.