MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - Newly released body camera footage captured the moments a veteran became the victim of a brutal beach beating. Now, he is describing exactly what happened to him.
The police were at the scene at a CVS minutes after the vicious, unprovoked, sudden attack of a 70-year-old Navy veteran in Miami Beach.
“You tell us what happened,” an officer said.
The body camera footage obtained exclusively by 7News showed the moments after the victim was beaten and bloodied at a Lincoln Road bus stop in late June.
His face was soaked in blood while waiting inside the CVS where he was first taken as he waited for help.
He told officers about the attack.
“This is what happened, I’m waiting over here at the bus stop,” the victim said. “I go to the VA. I volunteer there. I am also a veteran.”
The veteran was on his way to help fellow vets at the VA Hospital until his brutal encounter.
“He comes by, and he’s on his bike, he gets off his bike, walks around,” he said. “Then he goes all the way back and punches me real hard in the face. That knocked me down and out. As I’m laying there, the guy keeps coming back, and he takes his foot, ‘bing bing,’ hit me in the face with it and kicks me.”
According to police, the man who jumped him also went through his pockets.
“I just tried to cover myself the best I could, you know what I mean?” the veteran said.
“This man viciously attacked him like an animal,” said the victim’s wife.
Days after he was beaten, the victim’s wife spoke to 7News.
Nearly two months later, her husband remains at the same hospital where he volunteers.
His family sent a photo Monday after his recent spinal surgery.
Hours after the crime, officers arrested Daniel Cifforeli.
“Did you see who did it?” said an officer.
“The guy, he’s a crazy guy,” a witness said.
Body camera footage from the night of the crime showed officers trying to track Cifforeli down.
“Did they go that way?” an officer said.
“He was that way,” the victim said.
Ciforelli, who is a repeat offender, has years worth of mug shots for a multitude of crimes on Miami Beach and elsewhere.
“After 28 years in the Navy, I’m not worried,” the victim said as he was placed on a gurney. “You guys have a great day.”
Now, the tough-as-nails veteran is recovering after his encounter.
The victim remains at the VA with his family hoping that he returns home in the coming days.
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