COCOA, Fla. -- A 43-year-old Cocoa man is being held at the Brevard County Jail after he was accused of fatally stabbing and slashing a man with a pocket knife during a fight late Wednesday.

Frederick Cottrell is charged with second-degree murder.

Robert Kenneth Arthur, 42, was killed, according to Yvonne Martinez, a spokeswoman for the Cocoa Police Department.

Cocoa officers responded to the 1600 block of Ridge Drive after 911 callers reported a verbal argument between neighbors at 9:51 p.m. Wednesday.

An unidentified woman called police at 9:56 p.m. and said her husband “had been stabbed in the neck and was bleeding profusely,” a Cocoa police report said.

After getting a description of the attacker, an officer spotted a possible match, a man later identified as Cottrell.

The officer ordered him to the ground. Backup officers arrived and detained Cottrell without violence.

“While patting down Cottrell for any weapons, two pocket knives were located in his pant pockets,” a police report. 

One had what appeared to be blood on it. The other didn’t.

Investigators found a trail of blood droplets that began at a driveway and stretched to a carport.

“There was a trail of blood on the steps towards the front door and on the railing,” the report said. “Once inside the residence, I noticed the pools of blood were increasing in size. Upon entering the kitchen area there was a large pool of blood that was still wet, the victim was laying supine on the kitchen floor.”

“Blood droplets continued past the victim's body towards the rear bedrooms,” the report said. 

Arthur was pronounced dead at 10:12 p.m.

Witnesses whose names were not released by police identified Cottrell as the attacker, according to a police report.

At the Cocoa Police Department, Cottrell said he heard his friend of 15 years outside yelling at some neighbors. He left his home, walked over to the commotion to defend his neighbors and had his pocket knife in his right hand.

Arthur, according to Cottrell, kept reaching at his right hip as If he had a firearm. 

He took a swing and Cottrell thought he saw a firearm.

“Mr. Cottrell stated that he grabbed the slide of the firearm and made the firearm misfire,” the report said. “Mr. Cottrell also stated that he saw a muzzle flash.”

Investigators could not find a handgun.

“The victim's mother advised that the only firearm in the residence is a rifle that is not operable,” the police report added.

An investigator for the Brevard County Medical Examiner's Office said Arthur sustained a puncture wound to his left side of his stomach as well as a slash to his throat. 

“The victim did not have any defensive wounds,” the report noted.