OCEAN CITY — An Ocean City man, arrested and charged last October after threatening a co-worker with a knife at a midtown hotel, was found guilty this week of second-degree assault and sentenced to 30 days in jail.
Around 6:15 p.m. last Oct. 24, an Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) officer was dispatched to a hotel at 66th Street for a reported assault that had already occurred. The officer met with a female victim, who told police she had been threatened by a male co-worker later identified as Nikolay Suhin, now 41, of Ocean City, with a knife.
The victim told police she and Suhin were co-workers and were preparing a room in the hotel for an upcoming conference. The victim told police Suhin was upset because he had to work longer than he expected and was going to miss a class, according to police reports.
The victim told police Suhin went into the kitchen and she heard loud banging and screaming. When the victim went to the kitchen door, Suhin was banging on a table and screaming obscenities. The victim, still standing in the doorway, asked Suhin why he was upset, and he reportedly told her he had missed a class because of her and asked her to leave him alone and leave, according to police reports.
At that point, Suhin began walking toward the victim and as Suhin got close to the victim, she observed he was holding a knife. According to police reports, Suhin got within arm’s length of the victim and held the knife just inches from her neck. The victim told police she was able to back away and ran to the conference center office where she called police.
According to police reports, Suhin said he was in the kitchen yelling and banging on a table out of frustration with the situation. Suhin reportedly told police the victim came into the kitchen doorway and that he yelled at her because he was upset she had caused him to work later.
Suhin did tell police he approached the victim and got close to her neck region. However, Suhin kept telling different versions on the story. For example, he did tell police he possessed a knife like the one described by the victim, but that he kept it in the console of his vehicle and that is was nowhere near him during the incident.
OCPD officers retrieved the folding knife from Suhin’s vehicle. Based on the investigation, Suhin was arrested and charged with first- and second-degree assault. The first-degree assault charge was dropped in November. On Wednesday, Suhin was found guilty during a bench trial of second-degree assault and was sentenced to 30 days.
