Man Beat Woman After Breaking Into Her St. Pete Apartment: Sheriff

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — A 20-year-old was arrested early Thursday morning after attacking a woman outside her home in unincorporated St. Petersburg, according to a Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office news release.

Sean-Michael Cooper was charged with attempted murder and residential burglary with battery.

Patrol deputies responded to a burglary in progress at an apartment complex on 112th Avenue around 3:40 a.m.

They found Cooper standing outside of an apartment with blood on him, the sheriff’s office said.

Inside the apartment, deputies found the victim, a 22-year-old woman, with “significant injuries,” the agency said. She told deputies that Cooper attacked her.

Investigators learned that the victim found Cooper inside her home in the dark when she returned from work. He attacked her, hitting her in the head with a large glass pipe, spraying her with pepper spray and then striking her multiple times with a metal frying pan, detectives said.

Cooper then choked the victim, taking her phone and telling her he would stage an attack, and told her “to remove her clothes so he could sexually batter her,” the sheriff’s office said.

When the victim refused, Cooper threatened to kill her, her cats and her mother, the agency said. He continued to hit her until she was unconscious.

According to detectives, Cooper made a number of inconsistent statements and had injuries to his face and neck consistent with the victim defending herself.

The victim was brought to an area hospital with serious non-life-threatening injuries.