WINTHROP — A local man has been charged in connection with a stabbing over the weekend that left another man bleeding profusely, police said.

Paul Nicholas Coyne, 29, was arrested Sunday and charged with elevated aggravated assault, which was later reduced to aggravated assault.

The stabbing victim, Ernest Brown, 22, of Augusta, was taken by ambulance to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston Sunday, where he was treated and released later in the day, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

Coyne was being held at the Kennebec County jail in Augusta and was in court Monday, where his bail was reduced from $15,000 to $5,000. He was also issued warrants charging him with failure to pay a fine.

Winthrop Police Officer Kenneth Tabor, in an affidavit filed in Kennebec County Superior Court, said he was called about 12:30 a.m. Sunday for a report of a fight on Route 133. Coyne lives in the second-floor apartment where the fight was reported.

When he pulled in the driveway, Tabor saw a half-dozen people fighting and yelling at each other and also saw a man running away.

He said that he could see Ernest Brown bleeding profusely from his back. Tabor found a kitchen knife on the ground, which he put in his cruiser, then asked Brown what had happened.

He said Brown started yelling about a man who was standing on the other side of a car in the driveway.

“I could see Ernest had been bleeding substantially and as he walked, blood was dripping on the ground,” Tabor said in the affidavit.

Brown told Tabor that Paul Coyne and his brother Michael had been fighting with Brown about a drug issue related to Brown’s sister, who lives with Paul Coyne inside the Route 133 apartment. Brown said they had been fighting when Paul Coyne “came up and hit him in his side,” according to Tabor.

“Ernest said Paul had something in his hand, but he wasn’t sure what it was until after he started bleeding,” Tabor said. “Ernest said Paul had to have a knife because he was cut as deep as he was.”

Brown said it was Paul Coyne who fled as Tabor as arrived.

Maine State Police arrived with a tracking dog, but they didn’t find Coyne until around 10 a.m., when Winthrop Police Officer Timothy Flavey saw Coyne’s car on U.S. Route 202. Flavey stopped Coyne and arrested him.

Winthrop Police Chief Joseph Young said Coyne initially told officers his name was Michael Coyne.

“My officer’s keen observation was he had a scar on his face his brother didn’t have,” Young said.

Paul Coyne denied stabbing Brown, saying he ran because he knew there were warrants for his arrest.

Coyne said he had been inside when Brown and two of his family members arrived. He said the Browns started fighting with Michael Coyne.

“Paul said he ran outside, he and Ernest exchanged punches, and then the police showed up,” Tabor said. “Paul said he couldn’t have been outside for more than 30 seconds to a minute, but it wasn’t him who stabbed Ernest.”