OCEAN CITY — A phone book delivery man was charged with first-degree assault and other charges last week after allegedly stabbing his boss in the mouth with a screwdriver after being chastised.
Around 4:45 p.m. last Thursday, Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) officers were dispatched to the area of Mediterranean Avenue in the Little Salisbury community for a reported assault. Upon arrival, OCPD officers met with a male victim who was sitting in a delivery van and bleeding from the mouth with blood splatters on his shirt.
The officers located a suspect, identified as Michael Felix, 37, of no fixed address. The victim presented a screwdriver to the officers and told them Felix had stabbed him with it. The victim told police he and Felix had been delivering phone books in the Ocean City area. He told police he and Felix travel from city to city and work together delivering new phone books. They cohabitate in the same hotel rooms during the course of their delivery work and were currently staying in Salisbury, the victim told police.
The victim told police the altercation began when he scolded Felix for not putting a phone book in every driveway along their route. The victim said Felix, after being scolded about his job performance, “went off” and became aggressive. The victim told police he stopped the van at a street corner and the altercation turned physical while the two were standing near the back of the van.
Felix allegedly retrieved the screwdriver from the back of the van and stabbed the victim with it. The blade of the screwdriver punctured the victim’s lip and went all the way through, according to police reports. Felix then threw the screwdriver back in the van, but remained on the scene. A female witness told police she observed the incident and saw Felix stab the victim in the mouth with the screwdriver.
When OCPD officers interviewed a “very excited and difficult to understand” Felix, the suspect told police he had been fighting with the victim near the back of the delivery van. When asked if he used a screwdriver to “stab his boss,” Felix indicated he had used the screwdriver and showed officers the motion of swinging the tool at the victim.
Felix was arrested and charged with first-degree assault. He was taken before a District Court Commissioner and was ordered to be held on a $25,000 bond.
