MIAMI – A delivery man said he walked inside a South Florida condo building and was subjected to some terrible treatment.
First he was pushed and then a sign was thrown at him, leaving scratches on his side. To make matters worse, he said racially derogatory comments were also hurled his way.
“That’s when he touches me first, and I put my hands behind my back,” said Paulo Silva. “Luckily, he didn’t hit me in the head.”
Silva said surveillance video captured the encounter in the lobby of the Miami Plaza condo building located at 1500 Northeast Miami Place, around 7:30 p.m., Monday.
“Hey, what’s the matter with you, Indian?” recalled Silva. “It’s harsh. I think that those words were actually worse than the actual assault.”
Silva was there to make a food service delivery. As he was leaving, he noticed a guy sitting in the lobby and a group of women waiting to get in, so he opened the door.
“I told the ladies that were coming in, I was like, ‘Wow, this guy is sitting here. He doesn’t open the door for you,’” said Silva.
When that man realized something was said about him, he confronted Silva.
“He’s like asking, what did I say? So I told him I said, ‘Yeah, you were sitting there. You didn’t open the door for the people,’ and so then he went into a rage,” said Silva.
That’s when the man is seen on surveillance pushing Silva in the chest, then picking up a hard plastic wet floor warning sign and throwing it at him, shattering the sign and leaving marks on Silva’s side. Silva kept his arms behind his back, making a decision not to physically engage.
“I made the right choice,” said Silva. “I made the right choice not to do that.”
Instead, he called police and filed a report. He wants the man in the video charged with assault.
“People shouldn’t just be doing stuff like that and getting away with it,” said Silva. “Nobody should be hitting anybody. You know, the guy should get arrested.”
Miami Police are investigating the incident. They said when they took the initial report, there was no mention of racial slurs or derogatory language.
7News spoke with the building’s management. They said that this matter is now in the hands of police. They don’t know if the man in that video is a resident or was visiting.
