PEMBROKE PARK, FLA. (WSVN) - A lesbian couple said they were victims of a road rage incident in Pembroke Park involving a man in a van who they later learned was pipe bomb suspect Cesar Sayoc.
According to Indiana Parra, what sparked the March 16 incident, more than eight months before Sayoc’s Oct. 26 arrest, was a public display of affection while they were heading to dinner.
“Me and my partner, we were on a moped at a red light, so she leans toward me she and gives me a kiss,” said Parra, who asked not to show her face on camera.
Parra said a routine drive along Pembroke Road, near U.S. 441, turned into a frightening and hateful experience after she and her girlfriend, Rimbow Gomez, saw a white van covered in extreme political propaganda pull up next to them.
“The light turns green and we take off. He then starts following us,” said Parra.
What happened next, investigators said, seemed unreal.
The police report states the person driving the van started yelling homophobic slurs and then followed them for miles while trying to run them off the road.
“He was telling us that we were going to to hell, that we were going to die,” said Parra.
Moments later, the couple said, the driver of the Dodge Ram van threw urine at them, soaking their clothes.
“He threw it at us. He threw two cups of urine at me and at my girlfriend,” said Parra
“It just reeked, and it reeked like urine, so we knew that’s what it was,” said Gomez.
“It was gross, disturbing,” said Parra.
The couple can be heard on cellphone video calling the police to report that attacker’s tag number.
The driver got away, but months later, Parra and Gomez would see him again, this time on the news.
They were shocked to discover the man behind the wheel of the van was none other than Sayoc, the suspected bomber accused of sending more than a dozen explosive devices to top Democratic leaders and critics of President Donald Trump across the country.
Parra and Gomez were able to put the pieces together when they saw his van on the news after his arrest.
“I recognized his face, those eyes of hatred,” said Gomez. “I just recognized them and his van.”
They had no idea when they shot cellphone video of the van that it would wind up at the center of a federal investigation.
“I couldn’t believe that he was the bomber,” said Parra.
Sayoc is currently facing 30 federal charges. While he awaits trial in New York, the couple is at a loss for words that they were targeted by the man who caused terror to ripple throughout the nation.
“He’s literally capable of just taking your life without caring,” said Parra. “It was something very, very scary to me, and I’m still scared.”
In the end, Parra and Gomez opted against pressing charges against Sayoc. They said they’re at peace with this decision because Sayoc remains behind bars.
However, the couple indicated that they’re certain that what happened to them was a hate crime.
If Sayoc is convicted of his federal charges, he could be sentenced to decades in prison.
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