Police: Senior Citizen Passing Out Flyers Beaten By Homeless Men Who 'Owned The Corner'
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A senior citizen is recovering from a brutal attack in Hialeah. Two strangers punched him and beat him after he refused to give them money.
"Good morning sir. You were arrested for battery on a person 65 years or older," Judge Mindy Glazer told the suspect, Edgar Rodriguez, in bond court.
Rodriguez is looking at a $1,500 bond and a third degree felony. He likely won't make bail because he's homeless.
Then there is his pal, Juan Guerra. It's the same story, charged with battery on a 65 year old person.
Police said the two beat up 67-year-old Luis Morales.
Morales is OK now and his family is relieved.
But what were Rodriguez and Guerra up to? The two lived under a tree right on a canal bank and made their living on the street, panhandling. That is where the problem began.
Morales said he was passing out flyers for an insurance company on W 12th Avenue in Hialeah.
He said Rodriguez and Guerra told him they owned the corner, and if he was going to pass out flyers, he had to pay them. Morales told them he was not going to pay.
According to the police report, at that point "the victim was physically attacked by the defendant and co-defendant. Victim was punched closed fist in the body by defendants and hit multiple times with a cable by the co-defendant."
Morales said they hit me with an electrical cable from the powerlines.
"He beat somebody with a cable, with a cable. He allegedly hit somebody with a cable. There is probably cause for battery and I am setting him on a surety bond," Glazer said in court.
