A highly condemnable incident took place in the Daytona Beach Shores of Florida where a septuagenarian man was assaulted by another man only because the former asked a lady to follow social distancing protocol. This deplorable act was committed in the parking lot of a supermarket although the 75-year old man's conversation with the lady took place inside the store.
It all started when the victim was standing in the queue to get billing done for his purchases. He noticed that the lady standing close to him wasn't following the social distancing norms, suggested by decals on the floor of the supermarket. He asked the woman to maintain the necessary distance. Things moved on normally and the man got his billing done.
The assault
However, as he was approaching his car in the parking area, suddenly, a man, who was apparently accompanying the lady, came up to him and punched him in the chest, causing the victim to fall upon the ground. He didn't sustain any serious injuries and was helped by other people to get back on his feet. The aggressor apparently told him "One word and I'll kill you."
In a way, it was a lucky escape for the septuagenarian as, according to him, he recently underwent heart surgery and had a stent implanted inside him. The culprit in the entire case, after assaulting the elderly man, went away with the lady in a Cadillac car. The police have registered the complaint and are now looking for the assailant.
Police action
They have already obtained footage from the security cameras in the supermarket to identify him. However, the actual act of violence isn't caught on tape as there were no cameras in the parking lot where the incident took place.
"It's just horrible the fact that social distancing becomes something to go smash people and knock them to the ground," Stephen Dembinksy, police chief in the area said. "As we all know with this pandemic, everybody's very uptight and he asked the lady to give him some distance. The lady did so. He paid for his products and walked outside," he was quoted as saying by ClickOrlando.com.
