Amanda Rupp said the injured bicyclist had wronged her, while investigators said video and witnesses supported his account of an attack.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The attempted-murder case against Amanda Faye Rupp began with two sharply different explanations of a violent encounter: a seriously injured bicyclist said a stranger attacked and tried to rob him, while Rupp told police that she had been confronting a man who had robbed her.
West Palm Beach investigators ultimately sided with the 34-year-old man’s account for purposes of arresting Rupp, 42, after reviewing surveillance recordings, interviewing witnesses and examining the scene near 4715 Broadway Ave. Police accused her of attempted first-degree murder with a deadly weapon, robbery with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery causing bodily harm or disability and possession of drug paraphernalia. Those charges are allegations. They do not establish what happened, and Rupp is entitled to challenge the state’s evidence and is presumed innocent unless prosecutors prove the charges in court.
Rupp’s version entered the investigation after police took her into custody. According to accounts of the arrest affidavit, she claimed the man had taken $15 from her purse. She also alleged that he had offered his bicycle in exchange for sex and that he attacked her with a knife after she rejected him. One local report said Rupp acknowledged confronting the man and kicking him. The public reports reviewed for this article do not show that police accepted her claim that the injured man initiated the violence. Instead, investigators said other evidence led them to conclude that the victim was not the aggressor.
The man’s story began with a bicycle problem rather than a dispute. He told detectives that his tire had gone flat and that he was sitting near a Walgreens along Broadway Avenue when a woman approached and asked him about the bicycle. According to the arrest account, he said she then pulled a small kitchen knife, tried to take his phone, demanded money and threatened to kill him. He told police that she stabbed him repeatedly. Later allegations focused on the bicycle as well, with investigators saying Rupp tried to pull it away from him during the continuing confrontation.
His injuries gave investigators another set of facts that did not depend on either person’s description of the encounter. Security officers found the man shortly after midnight Sept. 20 with a major abdominal wound and serious damage to his nose. Paramedics took him for emergency medical care. Reports citing the arrest document said surgeons performed an abdominal procedure to stop internal bleeding and reconstructive surgery on his nose. Police also said a severed portion of the nose was recovered near the scene. Authorities have not released a detailed public account of the man’s recovery beyond those early reports.
Witness information added a complication before investigators narrowed their focus. WPBF reported that security officers were initially told that two women had tried to rob and assault the victim. Witnesses also said the man had been with two women before the attack after all three were asked to leave a nearby business. The publicly available reports do not establish that the second woman was charged in connection with the stabbing. The criminal allegations described by police focused on Rupp, whom officers later found near 49th Street and Broadway and arrested Sept. 22.
Surveillance footage then became the bridge between those conflicting accounts. Investigators reviewed recordings from businesses in the area and said the video showed a struggle behind 4715 Broadway. According to reports describing the affidavit, Rupp could be seen standing over the victim after the initial confrontation. Police said footage also showed her walking south along Broadway while carrying a silver-bladed knife, with what appeared to be blood on her arms. Investigators further alleged that she later approached the man again as he tried to get away with his bicycle.
The recordings were not described as a perfect visual record. A report citing the police document said the footage was dark and pixelated, making it difficult to determine exactly what happened during portions of the struggle. That limitation matters because a criminal case does not turn simply on whether a camera was present. Prosecutors would have to connect the recordings with witness testimony, medical evidence, physical evidence and any admissible statements. Defense attorneys, in turn, would be able to question whether investigators accurately interpreted unclear images or whether events outside the camera’s view change the meaning of what can be seen.
Police nevertheless said the later portion of the recording reinforced their conclusion about who was attacking whom. Investigators alleged that Rupp returned after the stabbing, struck the man in the back of the head, kicked him and punched him while trying to take his bicycle. Authorities also said the recording showed her continuing the confrontation after he had already suffered severe injuries. That sequence was cited by police as a reason for rejecting the claim that Rupp was merely defending herself during a mutual struggle. No court finding resolving that dispute was located in the public material reviewed for this article.
The charges reflect several different parts of the police theory. The attempted first-degree murder allegation concerns the claim that the attack was carried out with an intent serious enough to support an attempted-murder prosecution. The aggravated-battery count focuses on the alleged use of a weapon and the severity of the injuries. Florida law says aggravated battery can include intentionally or knowingly causing great bodily harm, permanent disability or permanent disfigurement, or using a deadly weapon. The robbery count addresses the accusation that force was connected to efforts to take property, including the man’s phone or bicycle.
Those distinctions matter because the same encounter can generate separate criminal allegations without making them legally interchangeable. Florida defines robbery as taking or attempting to take property from another person while using force, violence, assault or fear as part of that taking. Police accounts say Rupp first tried to obtain the man’s phone and later pulled at the bicycle. Prosecutors would have to establish the facts necessary for the particular robbery charge they pursue. Likewise, severe injuries alone do not automatically prove attempted murder; the state would still have to establish the elements of that charge with admissible evidence.
The man’s statement that his attacker threatened to kill him is likely to receive attention because police included it in their account of the confrontation. Investigators said he reported hearing the threat as the stabbing began. Such a statement, if admitted and credited, could become one part of the prosecution’s attempt to establish intent. It would not by itself decide the case. The defense could challenge whether the words were spoken, the reliability of the victim’s recollection, the circumstances in which his statement was taken and the meaning of the broader encounter. Public reports do not indicate that Rupp has testified or that a fact-finder has evaluated the disputed accounts.
The investigation therefore remains more complex than a single accusation followed by an arrest. The victim’s description, Rupp’s counterclaim, witness statements, the medical consequences and the surveillance recordings all address different parts of the same episode. Police said their review led them to believe the victim’s account was supported by the evidence available to them. That probable-cause determination allowed the case to move forward but did not replace the criminal process, in which prosecutors carry the burden of proof and the defense can contest both evidence and interpretation.
Initial reporting said Rupp was being held without bond in the Palm Beach County Jail and was expected in court Oct. 22. Public material reviewed through Nov. 8 did not provide a reliable update establishing what occurred at that scheduled hearing or setting out a final resolution of the charges. The case therefore remains unresolved in the verified reporting available for this article, and the allegations against Rupp remain unproven.
Author note: Last updated November 8, 2026.