KISSIMMEE, Fla. (WSVN) — A pizza delivery in Central Florida turned dangerous after a delivery driver allegedly stabbed a pregnant customer over a tip, and now the victim is sharing her side of the story.
Melinda Irizarry said she, her boyfriend and her 5-year-old daughter were at a motel in Kissimmee on Sunday, hanging out and having a staycation for her boyfriend’s birthday.
Just before midnight, Irizarry said, they heard someone pounding on the door.
That’s when, deputies said, a man and woman forced their way in.
“Once I realized the severity of the situation, I’m like, ‘My God, these people came in here to hurt us,'” said Irizarry.
According to an arrest report, the man pointed a gun at Irizarry’s daughter and then forced her boyfriend into the bathroom at gunpoint.
The woman took out a knife and allegedly stabbed Irizarry.
“It wasn’t like she was just upset. It was like she was in a frenzy mode,” said Irizarry.
At the hospital, Irizarry discovered it wasn’t just her life at risk. Doctors told her she is roughly a month pregnant.
“I started crying, and I kept telling my boyfriend, ‘I think I’m going to die,'” she said.
She needed over 200 staples for cuts on her arms, wrists, shoulders, back, stomach, and chest: 14 stab wounds in total.
In addition, she needed surgeries for a punctured lung and severed tendons in her knee.
“My daughter seeing that whole thing, it’s pretty heartbreaking to me,” said Irizarry. “It’s pretty traumatic.”
It wasn’t until later that Irizarry and detectives realized that the woman was allegedly the pizza delivery driver who’d gotten upset about a small tip earlier in the night.
Police identified the delivery driver as Brianna Alvelo.
Surveillance video linked Alvelo to the crime and arrested her on a warrant the next day.
But Irizarry doesn’t think this was only about money.
“You got the money. My boyfriend told you where there was more money, and you didn’t go get it,” she said.
In the end, no amount of money could get Alvelo out of the situation she’s in.
“You’re not going to be able to bond out,” a judge told her during a court hearing.
Alvelo is facing charges for aggravated assault, kidnapping, home invasion, and she’s charged under the same statute that covers premeditated murder.
“State believes this is a punishable-by-life offense,” said the state attorney’s office.
The man who, deputies said, was with Alvelo is still out there.
That scares Irizarry.
“I am scared, and he knows exactly how [my boyfriend] looks. He stared at the man for so long with a gun pointed to his head. I want them to get him as soon as possible, because they’re monsters. They should not be out in the street,” she said.
Irizarry has a long road ahead. She’ll have to learn how to walk again following her knee surgery.
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