PALM COAST, Fla. — A passing driver who saw a man strangling a woman along a Palm Coast road called 911 and stopped to help, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies responded to Old Kings Road and Town Center Boulevard around 1:45 a.m. Sunday.
The witness told investigators she initially saw a man and woman arguing on the sidewalk. She turned her vehicle around and returned to find the man on top of the woman with his hands around her neck, deputies said.
Investigators identified the man as 44-year-old Eulices Soto of Palm Coast.
The victim told deputies that she and Soto had been arguing inside a vehicle before they pulled over. She said Soto then began strangling her on the sidewalk and that she could not breathe for several seconds.
Deputies said the victim was crying and appeared frantic. They also observed red marks around her neck and blood on her lip and behind her left ear.
Soto told deputies the two had been arguing. Investigators said he had a knife in his back pocket, which a deputy removed before placing him on the curb.
“Strangling someone is not just an argument; it is a few seconds away from a homicide,” Sheriff Rick Staly said. “A hero driving by ‘saw something and said something’ and likely saved this woman’s life.”
Soto was arrested on a charge of domestic battery by strangulation. He was taken to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility and later released on a $35,000 bond.
The Sheriff’s Office said Soto had recently been released after serving 17½ years in federal prison for conspiracy to import more than 1 kilogram of heroin into the United States.
Anyone experiencing domestic violence can call or text 911 during an emergency. The Family Life Center’s confidential 24-hour domestic violence hotline is available at 386-437-3505.
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