Florida Man With No Arms Allegedly Stabs Chicago Tourist
A Florida man with no arms has been arrested for allegedly stabbing a Chicago Tourist, The Bradenton Herald is reporting.
Jonathan Crenshaw is homeless and has no arms, weighs about 90 pounds, and apparently gets by as an artist on Miami’s famed South Beach, painting with his feet. According to a 2011 Miami New Times profile, he’s actually a pretty talented artist.
Nevertheless, on Tuesday, July 10, he ran afoul of the law, and not for the first time in his life. What happened just after midnight that morning is a matter of dispute. Crenshaw says he was lying on the beach, minding his own business, when Chicago tourist Cesar Coronado, 22, punched him in the head without warning. Using his feet, Crenshaw grabbed the scissors that he kept in his waist band and stabbed Coronoado twice, later claiming he was defending himself. He then put the scissors back in his waist band and walked off.
Coronado, and his companion, Cindy Barrientos, 22, paint a different picture of what happened. They say that they had stopped to ask Crenshaw for directions and that he jumped up and stabbed them for no reason.
Police found Coronado lying in the sand, bleeding from his leg. He was taken to a nearby hospital, while Crenshaw was taken downtown and charged with aggravated battery, according to WSVN-TV (Miami).
Art on the Street: Jonathan Dale Crenshaw https://t.co/xIDDz01IlW via @NewTimesArts
— @JMoon (@Jmoon901) July 11, 2018
Crenshaw has long been a fixture among Miami’s homeless. A 2011 Miami New Times series profiled the community of transient artists, street performers, and drug addicts who blow through town, and did a feature on Crenshaw.
Provided with art supplies by a community art center, Crenshaw ekes out a living painting and selling his works to tourists.
He’s also a bit enigmatic. He says he was born in Alabama and moved around a lot with his mother, who continually fed him rat poison “for the insurance money.” He doesn’t say how he came to be without arms, but claims that he has sharp teeth that the government drilled when he was five years old. Further, he claims to have impregnated many women, including Gloria Estefan, who gave birth to 200 of his children.
His paintings sell for about $60 each, and he also draws something of an income from the loose change and dollar bills that passerby drop into a cup. He uses his income to pay for a hotel room, and he makes enough money to take a day off now and then to “eat good food, have a beer, and watch TV.”
He also has a rap sheet dating to 2008, with charges for trespassing, disorderly intoxication, vandalism, and battery on police officers, firefights and city code inspectors.
