Officers say they searched for a person reportedly waving a knife before a separate fight unfolded about 15 minutes later.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando police have released a detailed timeline of their response to a report of a person waving a knife downtown shortly before a stabbing that critically injured a man, pushing back on claims that officers failed to respond before the violence.
The department said someone called police at 10:10 p.m. Oct. 9 and reported a person waving a knife near 22 S. Magnolia Ave. Two bicycle officers were dispatched three minutes later and arrived at about 10:16 p.m., police said. Officers searched the area but were unable to locate the person described in the call.
About 15 minutes after those officers arrived, police said officers saw a physical altercation near Orange Avenue and Central Boulevard involving Deaveon Jaquan Brown, 28, and Kevin Newhard. Investigators say the confrontation escalated into a stabbing. Newhard was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center in critical condition and underwent surgery. Police later said he was expected to survive.
The police timeline was released after questions spread about whether officers had received an earlier warning involving a man with a knife. The department said the claim that officers did not respond was inaccurate. Police have not publicly established that the person described in the initial 911 call was Newhard or otherwise confirmed that the earlier report involved either man in the later confrontation.
Police said video from the later encounter shows Newhard had both a knife and a belt. Investigators say Newhard put the knife on the ground and swung the belt during the confrontation. Brown then picked up the knife and stabbed Newhard multiple times, police allege. Brown was detained at the scene and later arrested.
The department said several bystanders witnessed or recorded the fight but that no one called 911 to report the confrontation as it unfolded. According to police, the agency received no additional calls involving either man before, during or immediately after the stabbing. Officers encountered the fight while already in the downtown area.
Witness accounts have complicated the public picture of what happened before the portion of the confrontation recorded on video. Jonathan Witt, who recorded the fight, told WFTV that Newhard had possessed the knife earlier and had threatened Brown before the physical confrontation. Tyler Clark, another witness, said he had seen the man later identified as Newhard acting aggressively elsewhere downtown earlier in the evening.
Those accounts have helped fuel questions about whether Brown could argue that he acted in self-defense. Police and prosecutors have focused on what they say happened after the knife was put down. At a later detention hearing, an Orlando police detective testified that video showed Newhard swinging a belt and falling near the curb before Brown advanced toward him while holding the knife.
A judge subsequently ordered Brown held without bond on the attempted murder charge after considering the video, testimony and the defense’s self-defense argument. The judge said prosecutors had not established a substantial probability of premeditation at that stage but had shown a substantial probability that Brown committed a dangerous felony. The ruling concerned Brown’s detention and did not determine whether he is guilty.
Brown faces charges of attempted first-degree murder with a weapon, aggravated battery with a weapon, use of a weapon in the commission of a felony and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. His attorney has argued that Newhard was the initial aggressor and that Brown acted in response to a threat. Prosecutors maintain that the circumstances had changed before the stabbing occurred.
The investigation leaves separate questions for police and prosecutors: whether the earlier knife report involved either man, how much weight witness accounts should receive and whether Brown’s actions qualify as lawful self-defense. Authorities have not publicly linked the subject of the 10:10 p.m. call to the later stabbing. Brown remains jailed while the criminal case proceeds and is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Author note: Last updated October 16, 2026.