During the early morning hours of Sunday, 21-year-old Brandon Goodin was arrested after allegedly stabbing someone multiple times.
According to police, the stabbing victim and his friends got into a fight with another group of people at a downtown establishment and continued arguing after leaving.
When they reached the intersection by the courthouse downtown, Goodin’s friend group allegedly started arguing with both groups.
A physical fight broke out between the three groups, according to the arrest report, and Goodin came up onto the side of the unarmed victim and began stabbing him with a knife in the stomach.
The victim then fell to the ground and his friend started helping him as Goodin allegedly walked away, according to the arrest report.
At this time, a Gainesville police officer pulled up in his car and the victim and his friend told him Goodin had stabbed the victim.
The officer arrested Goodin as multiple bystanders told him Goodin had stabbed the victim, according to the report.
The arrest report said Goodin was not in any danger or being physically provoked when he began stabbing the man.
The victim’s injuries were “life-threatening” and he was taken by ambulance to Shands Hospital, according to the report.
The victim’s nurse later told police he had been stabbed eight times, puncturing his lung. He also had a “very deep” cut across his body that required 30 stitches to close and another stab wound that caused a sucking chest wound, according to the report.
At the time the report was written, the victim was in the intensive care unit at Shands, but is expected to survive, according to the report.
After Goodin was arrested, he told police he was in fear of his life because the victim “came at me with something,” according to the report. There are several witness statements that contradict this.
He told police he didn’t know how many times he had stabbed him.
Goodin is being charged with attempted felony murder.
Contact Alexa Ryan at aryan@alligator.org. Follow her on X @AlexaRyan_.
Alexa is a second-year journalism and international studies students serving as the Fall 2025 Criminal Justice beat reporter. She previously served as a copy editor. She spends her free time running, traveling, having movie nights and going on random side quests with friends.
