ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — A registered sex offender was arrested Sunday after he allegedly sexually battered a woman at knifepoint, according to St. Petersburg police.
Acording to a police affidavit, the victim was walking on 1st Avenue North when a transient man, 49-year-old Antonio Tyrone Flowers, called her over. Police said said once the victim got close to him, he pulled a knife on her and held it to her throat.
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In the affidavit, Flowers is said to have allegedly sexually battered the woman while she asked him not to kill her, telling her not to move.
The victim managed to escape and made it to a bus station where she called the police by using a security guard’s phone, police said.
Police said they found Flowers, who claimed he had consensual sex with the woman. However, when officers tried to detain him to secure DNA evidence on his body, Flowers resisted by pulling away from officers, another document said.
Flowers refused to identify himself, but officers recognized him due to unspecified “recent involvements.” He also threatened to have his nephew beat the officers while on the way to the St. Petersburg Police Department’s headquarters, according to the document.
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Police said a red stain on Flowers’ pants tested positive for blood, and a knife was also found at the scene.
Flowers has a previous conviction for sexually battery from 1991.
The crime he was convicted of is described as being “sexual battery upon a person 12 years of age or older, without that person’s consent, and in the process thereof does not use physical force and violence likely to cause serious personal injury commits a felony of the second degree.”
Flowers now faces charges for armed sexual battery, threatening a public servant, and resisting an officer without violence.