Stabbing at Econolodge: Money Issues for Homeless Family Staying There Escalate Into Violence

A juvenile girl apparently defending herself from being choked stabbed her mother’s boyfriend, 35-year-old Tyland Chambers, at the Econolodge in Palm Coast Sunday morning, before Chambers allegedly attacked another man who was trying to protect the girl. Chambers ended up hospitalized for treatment, and facing four charges, including two felonies.

The girl “was not charged after the investigation concluded,” a Flagler County Sheriff’s spokesperson said. “She acted in self-defense.”




The incident, which extended to the Circle K gas station and convenience store off Kingswood Drive, took place shortly after midnight and drew several calls to 911 and a large response by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office. It was the culmination of a family dispute aggravated by the family’s homeless status and financial stress, and that that had escalated after Chambers complained that the juvenile girl was not giving him money to pay for the family’s hotel room.

Chambers, the girl’s mother, L.M.E., and the girl’s siblings have been living as a family unit for three years. They had previously lived at a residence on Luther Drive, but were evicted last September after failing to pay the monthly rent of $2,245. It isn’t unusual for homeless families to rent extended stays at local motels and hotels. Both the juvenile girl and Chambers were bringing income for the family.

According to accounts by those involved, some video surveillance footage and Chambers’s arrest report, Chambers had been getting drunk frequently, and on Saturday had gotten upset that L.M.E.’s daughter had not provided him any money for the room. He started threatening members of the family, L.M.E. and the juvenile girl especially, telling them they should die, that he would thrown them over the motel banister and watch their heads crack over the pavement, and saying: “I want to dangle all of you.”




Matters got out of hand enough that the girl took her siblings to Daytona Beach to get away from Chambers. While at the boardwalk in Daytona, she bought a pocketknife, she later told authorities, to protect herself against Chambers, about whom she had become fearful. When she returned to the Econolodge that night, her mother L.M.E. told her not to go to the room because Chambers was being belligerent. So the girl went to spend time at a friend’s room–another homeless family staying at the Econolodge. She was going to stay the night there. But she needed belongings from her own room. When she went there, she saw Chambers throwing her belongings out of the room.

Chambers and the girl began to argue. When Chambers pushed his girlfriend to get to the juvenile girl, the girl ran downstairs, where Chambers caught out with her and allegedly put her in a headlock, restricting her breathing. At that point the girl took out the pocketknife and swung it. She did not know if she’d struck Chambers. But he let go. She ran to the Circle K gas station, where a man who was getting gas there allowed her into his car for her protection. Chambers had in fact been cut. He had one laceration on his upper arm and another on top of his left hand.

Chambers followed the girl to the Circle K station, where he then had a confrontation with the man who’d been protecting the girl. The confrontation, which allegedly included more threats from Chambers, turned physical, with blows exchanged, before sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene. Chambers denied putting a hand on the juvenile girl and told deputies that it was she who had threatened to call someone to beat him up. He told deputies that he had followed her to the Circle K parking lot and attempted to give her a hug. It was then, he said, that he believes he was stabbed. A deputy pointed out to him the trail, of blood going back to the motel’s parking. So he said he may have been stabbed in that parking lot and not noticed it.




Surveillance video footage corroborated the confrontation he had with the man in the Circle K parking lot, but motel surveillance was not accessible. Deputies relied on eyewitness statements. Chambers was transported to Halifax hospital in Daytona Beach where he was treated and released to the Volusia Branch Jail. He faces charges of child abuse, domestic violence battery by strangulation, domestic violence battery, and simple battery. He will be extradited to Flagler County.

“Thank you to the citizens that intervened to protect a child victim as deputies responded,” a Sheriff’s Office notice said on the agency’s Facebook page.