Man wearing homemade knife necklace charges at neighbors, ECSO says

Annie Blanks | Pensacola News Journal

A Pensacola man faces three felony charges after authorities say he made a homemade knife necklace and charged at his neighbor and his neighbor's young children with knives.

John Stephen Bulla, 64, was arrested Wednesday at his home on Amber Street. Bulla's neighbor told deputies that earlier in the morning, he heard a commotion outside and went to see what it was, and his two children followed him outside.

That's when the neighbor saw Bulla standing outside wearing a "handmade knife necklace" and holding a knife in both hands, according to the Escambia County Sheriff's Office arrest report.

The neighbor told Bulla he was making too much noise early in the morning and he needed to go inside or the neighbor would call 911, the report said. Bulla then allegedly told him, "If you call the cops, I will kill you," and ran at him, holding a knife above his head as if he was going to swing it at the neighbor.

The neighbor told deputies he pushed his kids inside the door, followed them inside and locked the door. He said Bulla continued to yell outside his door for many minutes while he called 911.

Deputies went to Bulla's home, but he refused to come to the door and shouted he "had a knife and a hammer and he would kill anyone who came inside his residence," according to the report. The deputies were eventually able to make contact with the man on the phone and encouraged him to come outside slowly without any weapons. He was eventually detained.

Inside the home, deputies allegedly found a handmade knife necklace, a hammer and a kitchen knife on a carabiner with a box cutter attached.

Bulla was charged with one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of felony child cruelty.

He's being held in the Escambia County Jail on $30,000 bond.