The injured man told police he had stopped along Broadway Avenue when a woman approached, leading to an encounter now under felony prosecution.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A 34-year-old man was waiting with a bicycle disabled by a flat tire along Broadway Avenue when, according to police, an ordinary roadside problem turned into a violent encounter that sent him to emergency surgery and led to the arrest of Amanda Faye Rupp.
The man’s medical condition was the first clear measure of what had occurred. Security officers found him shortly after midnight Sept. 20 near 47th Street and Broadway with a serious abdominal stab wound and a major injury to his nose. Emergency crews transported him to a hospital, where reports citing the West Palm Beach Police Department arrest affidavit said doctors performed a procedure to stop internal bleeding and reconstructive surgery on his nose. Police said a portion of the injured tissue was later recovered from the scene. Authorities have not released a detailed public update on his longer-term recovery.
Only after the immediate medical response did investigators begin piecing together how the man had become injured. He told detectives that the tire on his bicycle had gone flat and that he was sitting near a Walgreens when a woman approached him and asked about the bicycle. He did not describe the meeting as an arranged encounter in the account attributed to him by police. Instead, investigators said the woman suddenly produced a small kitchen knife, tried to take his phone and threatened to kill him before stabbing him. Police later identified the woman they accused of carrying out the attack as Rupp, 42.
The bicycle remained part of the confrontation even after the initial stabbing, according to investigators. Police said Rupp tried to pull the bike away from the injured man as he attempted to leave. Reports describing surveillance footage alleged that she struck him several times in the back of the head, kicked him and punched him during that later phase of the incident. The allegation that property was being taken while force was used led investigators to treat the episode not only as a serious assault but also as a suspected robbery. Rupp has not been convicted of any offense arising from the encounter.
The location gave police potential witnesses and cameras that might not have been available in a more isolated setting. The confrontation occurred along a commercial stretch of Broadway Avenue near businesses equipped with surveillance systems. Investigators gathered recordings and interviewed people who had seen the victim and two women before the violence. WPBF reported that witnesses said all three had been asked to leave a nearby business. Security officers were initially told by the victim that two women had tried to rob and assault him. Public accounts do not indicate that a second woman was charged in connection with the stabbing.
Recordings from businesses helped investigators narrow the case. Police said video showed a struggle near the rear of 4715 Broadway Ave. and later appeared to show Rupp standing over the victim. Authorities also alleged that she was recorded walking south from the area carrying a silver-bladed knife, with blood visible on her arms. Investigators said the footage then showed her returning toward the man and continuing the confrontation around the bicycle. One report noted that the video was dark and pixelated, however, and that the poor image quality made it difficult to determine exactly what happened during portions of the original struggle.
That uncertainty did not prevent Rupp from giving police a very different account. She alleged that the man had taken $15 from her purse. Another report describing the police interview said she claimed he had offered his bicycle in exchange for sex and attacked her with a knife after she rejected the proposal. She therefore presented herself as a victim rather than the person who initiated the violence. According to WPBF’s account of the affidavit, Rupp admitted confronting and kicking the man. Police said the evidence they collected, including witness statements and video, led them to reject the claim that he had been the aggressor.
Investigators located Rupp on Sept. 22 near 49th Street and Broadway. Her arrest came roughly two days after the injured man was found. She was accused of attempted first-degree murder with a deadly weapon, robbery with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery causing bodily harm or disability and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to local reports. The case remained under investigation when police announced the arrest. The charges state the government’s accusations; they do not establish guilt, and Rupp has the right to contest the evidence and the conclusions investigators drew from it.
The victim’s injuries are particularly relevant to the aggravated-battery charge. Florida law provides that aggravated battery can include intentionally or knowingly causing great bodily harm, permanent disability or permanent disfigurement, or using a deadly weapon during a battery. Police say the victim suffered injuries serious enough to require two types of surgery. Whether those injuries satisfy each element alleged by prosecutors, and whether Rupp is proven to have caused them in the manner police contend, are questions for the criminal proceeding rather than conclusions that can be drawn merely from the arrest.
The robbery accusation focuses on the disputed efforts to take property. Florida law defines robbery around a taking, or an attempt to take, accompanied by force, violence, assault or fear and an intent to deprive the owner of the property. Police reports describe both an alleged attempt to take the victim’s phone and a later struggle over the bicycle. The disabled bicycle is therefore more than background to the story: investigators say it was both the reason the man had stopped in the area and one of the items Rupp later tried to take from him. Prosecutors would still have to prove that allegation with admissible evidence.
The attempted-murder count involves a further question about what the alleged attacker intended. The victim told investigators that the woman threatened to kill him during the stabbing, and police said Rupp continued assaulting him after he had already been seriously injured. Investigators cited the overall sequence in bringing the attempted first-degree murder accusation. But intent is a legal element, not something established simply because the injuries were severe. The defense can challenge the victim’s recollection, the meaning of any statements, the surveillance interpretation and whether the evidence supports the particular level of homicide offense alleged.
The police account leaves several matters unresolved. The victim has not been publicly identified in the reliable reporting reviewed for this article, and officials have not released a detailed prognosis following his surgeries. The available reports also do not explain the role of the second woman seen with the group before the confrontation or establish whether investigators consider her a witness or merely someone who happened to be nearby. The footage itself reportedly does not clearly show every moment. Those gaps are important because early arrest affidavits often describe the evidence supporting probable cause rather than every fact that might later be presented in court.
What is established in the public record is narrower. A man with a disabled bicycle was found severely injured along Broadway Avenue. Police interviewed him after he reached the hospital, collected physical evidence, reviewed security-camera recordings, interviewed witnesses and later arrested Rupp. She offered an account that differed from his. Investigators said the evidence available to them supported the man’s version strongly enough to pursue serious felony charges. The criminal process will determine whether prosecutors can meet the much higher burden required for a conviction.
Early reports said Rupp remained in the Palm Beach County Jail without bond and was scheduled to return to court Oct. 22. The reliable public material reviewed through Nov. 8 did not establish the result of that scheduled hearing or provide a final disposition of the case. Until a court resolves the allegations, Rupp is presumed innocent, and the full legal significance of the surveillance footage, witness statements and conflicting accounts remains unsettled.
Author note: Last updated November 8, 2026.