Theodosia man arrested after stabbing incident


Cameron Cofer

After reportedly stabbing a man in the lower back early Saturday morning, Cameron Cofer, 31, of Theodosia, is being held in the Ozark County Jail on a $15,000 cash-only bond. Cofer, charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action, was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday before Associate Judge Raymond Gross. Results of that court appearance were not available at press time. 

According to the probable cause statement in the case written by Ozark County Chief Deputy Winston Collins, a witness called 911 at 4:36 a.m. Saturday to report a stabbing. The caller told the dispatcher that two men were involved in an altercation at the caller’s house on Highway 160 west of Gainesville, and one of the men, whom he identified as Cofer, had used a kitchen knife to stab another man on the property. 

When Ozark County Deputy Dustin Smith arrived on scene of the alleged attack at 5:01 a.m., the victim was lying on the ground under a tree with three women tending to the wounded man. Smith secured the scene and allowed medical personnel to assist the victim. Smith found Cofer near the house and placed him in restraints. 

The victim was taken by ambulance to Baxter Regional Medical Center in Mountain Home, Arkansas, with a deep, 1.5-inch-wide puncture wound to the lower back, penetrating his abdominal cavity, the statement said. The Times has learned that the victim was released from the hospital and returned home Monday.

After Cofer was secured and the victim was loaded in the ambulance, Smith spoke with the witnesses, who told him Cofer attempted to “kiss and lay on the couch with” a woman inside the home. When he was told to stop, Cofer reportedly became upset and said he wanted to leave. 

Cofer then went outside and locked himself inside his truck. The man who would become the victim, and his fiancee, went to the truck in an attempt to stop Cofer from driving because he was intoxicated, the report says.

A verbal altercation broke out between Cofer and the man, and Cofer got out of the vehicle and went back into the house. 

A witness told deputies she followed Cofer into the house, where he went into the kitchen, grabbed a knife from a butcher block set, placed the knife in his waistband and went back outside. 

Cofer then reportedly yelled that he was going to “gut” the other man. A witness inside the house dialed 911 to report the altercation. Moments later, a woman ran into the house and yelled for someone to call for an ambulance because the victim had been stabbed. She ran back outside, and Cofer reportedly entered the house again. He did not have a knife in his hand, and he was reportedly looking for the keys to his truck. 

The victim’s fiancee told the deputy that while Cofer and the man were arguing, Cofer sprinted toward the house, entered then exited and ran back to where she and the victim were standing. The woman said Cofer struck the man with something and then ran toward the highway and threw what she believed to be a knife over the highway into a field. 

Cofer was arrested and transported to the Ozark County Jail, where he was interviewed at 9:09 a.m. He reportedly told deputies he had become angry with the man because of a prior incident involving the victim’s fiancee, who is his family member. Cofer reportedly admitted to entering the house, grabbing the knife and going back outside to stab the victim. 

At the time of the incident, Cofer had been released on bond in an Oregon County case filed May 30 in which he is charged with stalking and violating an order of protection for an adult. That case is also ongoing. 

Ozark County Times

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