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The family of a 13-year-old boy who survived a near-fatal throat slashing on the Daytona Beach Boardwalk on Valentine’s Day is expressing outrage after learning the suspect was out on the streets despite a lengthy criminal record.
Jail records show Jermaine Lynn Long, a registered sex offender, was released just four days before the random attack on Sullivan Clarke. Long faces pending charges from an incident in January when he allegedly assaulted two men with a knife and an eight-foot pole.
Prosecutors ultimately declined to pursue the allegations, according to local reporting and jail records. Long is also suspected of attacking another man with a sledgehammer about 20 minutes before the teenager was cut.
“This is totally unacceptable. I cannot believe he was just released four days ago and then come to find out he could have been arrested the same day and my son — we wouldn’t even be sitting here right now,” Jared Clarke, Sullivan’s father, told “The Ingraham Angle” Wednesday.
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Long is a registered sex offender in Nebraska, convicted of sexual assault of a minor. He was also found guilty of petit theft and drug possession.
Sullivan was talking on the phone while walking with his parents when the attack occurred.
“Out of nowhere, he came with a box cutter like that behind me and got this side of my neck… I happened to be turning my head at the time. So he just missed this part of my throat,” Sullivan said, gesturing to the front of his neck. “And he also, by some miracle, didn’t hit my jugular either.”
Doctors told the family if the cut had been one millimeter deeper, the attack would have been fatal. Sullivan received 13 stitches.
Long now faces two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, according to Volusia County Jail records, and was granted a $50,000 surety bond.
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Sullivan’s mother, Lori Clarke, challenged law enforcement to do more.
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“It’s just shocking that he could be out on the streets. He’s fallen through the cracks so many times… and we know that the state of Florida can do better and that we are going to put this horrible pervert away forever.”
She added that Sullivan has had nightmares since the assault and that his 11-year-old brother, who saw “his brother’s neck split open,” might have been traumatized by the event.
Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
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