MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - A 17-year-old girl and a woman were arrested and charged after, police said, they beat up two store employees following a brazen theft at a popular Lincoln Road store, a brutal takedown that was caught on camera.
A cellphone camera rolled a group of teenage girls and others repeatedly punched a man, and one of the suspects grabbed a woman by the hair in the area of Lincoln Road and Washington Avenue, Sept. 19.
The footage showed the perpetrators as they slammed the woman’s head against a garbage can and then threw her to the ground. The older suspect is seen kicking the victim at least once.
Miami Beach Police said the suspects, a Miami Beach Senior High student and a 26-year-old woman, were taken into custody arrested and charged with battery.
Speaking through a translator on Thursday, the female employee who was attacked opened up about the incident.
“We shouldn’t feel scared in our workplace,” she said.
This employee showed 7News bruises on her neck from the beating.
“It was just so fast, I didn’t understand why this happened. Why did they attack me? There was no reason,” she said.
Investigators said the incident happened in the afternoon, after a few girls went into Surf Style at 421 Lincoln Road.
Surveillance video shows one of them as she helped herself to some vape pens.
A man working behind the counter took off after the girls, who ended up being part of a larger group.
The male employee was trying to record video evidence to show police, but that didn’t work out so well. Instead, the Surf Style worker got punched, kicked and more in the middle of one of Miami Beach’s busiest spots.
“The first blow I got was with a bicycle tire,” he said in Spanish.
The female employee said she ran out to try to help when she saw what was happening.
“He was bleeding from his face profusely. I began to get scared,” she said. “I yelled, ‘Please, let him go! Let him go!’ That’s when they all grabbed me.”
Surveillance video from Surf Style showed the group coming back into the store. One of them wheeled his bike inside, as the teens laughed and taunted the injured employees, who were standing behind the counter still cleaning up their wounds.
When video of the attack surfaced, police were able to track down one suspect at the high school. Officers located the other suspect near the Beachwalk.
The older suspect, identified as Racheida Murphy, made her first court appearance on Thursday morning.
“Ma’am, you were arrested for felony battery,” said Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Mindy S. Glazer.
To date, Murphy is the only adult who has been arrested.
“She’s a danger to the community based on her actions, and a bond is appropriate,” said Glazer.
Murphy’s bond was set at $5,000.
In addition to the battery charge, the teenage suspect, identified as Alois Jansnelly Cathalina, also faces a theft charge. Her next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 5.
Thursday night, sources close to the investigation told 7News that officers have since apprehended three other juveniles.
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