The evening of July 4, Rodolfo Rodriguez did what he does on most evenings: take a stroll around his neighborhood. Instead, after allegedly bumping into a small child on his walk, the 92-year-old Mexican man was beaten with a brick and jumped by a group of attackers, all while being told to “go back to [his] own country.”
As KTLA reports, Rodriguez was on his regular 8 p.m. walk around his Los Angeles neighborhood when he bumped into a toddler while trying to pass her on the sidewalk, according to Rodriguez’s family.
In response, police say, the child’s mother shoved Rodriguez to the ground and began beating him with a brick.
KCBS spoke to a witness who stopped to call the police and recorded the beating. According to her, four more men joined the toddler’s mother in beating Rodriguez, kicking him him and breaking his ribs.
“When I [took] the picture, she said, ‘Oh, he tried to touch my girl,’” said the witness. “I saw everything. This [was] a lie.”
According to the passerby, as Rodriguez was being beaten, the mother shouted “Go back to your country, why are you here?” at the elderly man.
Rodriguez is a legal U.S. citizen. However, he doesn’t speak English, the Sacramento Bee writes, so he still has no idea why he was attacked.
Source: The Root
