MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - An elderly man is recovering after, he said, his neighbor punched, kicked and beat him with a bicycle tire outside of his Miami Beach home.
Speaking with 7News on Wednesday, Rodolfo Ortega said the incident played out Monday around noon along the 1200 block of Normandy Drive.
“He tried to kill me, I don’t know, did it for nothing,” he said.
The victim, 75, said he and his neighbors were talking trash, literally: the placement of trash in front of their buildings.
Surveillance video shows Ortega placing items at the curb for pick up when the suspect, George Horton, heads his way.
“I tell the guy, ‘Don’t touch me,’ he touched me, and I tried to defend [myself], but he, the wheel broke every me,” said Ortega.
Video captures the brutal whipping of Ortega, as he was struck with the bike tire over and over.
The victim said Horton punched him in the face, and when he tried to defend himself, he was hit with the tire several times. After he fell to the ground, he was kicked.
“Everybody here tried to defend me. He stopped,” said Ortega.
The elderly victim was left with a gash on his head and scrapes and bruises all over his body.
Police arrested Horton and charged the 47-year-old with aggravated battery of a person over the age of 65.
Wednesday afternoon, the suspect appeared before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mindy S. Glazer.
“There’s probable cause for aggravated battery,” said Glazer.
But it isn’t Horton’s first run in with the law.
“He’s got priors from Nassau, DeKalb County, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia,” said a prosecutor during the suspect’s bond hearing.
Ortega said Horton is a military veteran and up until recently, he’d been a friendly guy.
“Every day I say hi,” he said.
But over the past several weeks, Ortega said, he’d been having trouble with the suspect, so much so that he called police at least five separate times, fearful something bad was going to happen.
On one occasion, Ortega said, the suspect busted up the front door of his apartment. Wednesday night, 7News cameras captured the door partly covered with plywood.
Ortega testified in bond court via Zoom. He said he needed to go to the doctor and is still hurting.
Now the victim hopes Horton gets some help.
“I don’t have nothing with the guy, no problem. I don’t have nothing with the guy,” said Ortega.
Horton is being held without bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in West Miami-Dade.
If he does manage to get out jail, Glazer gave him a stay-away order from Ortega, meaning he must stay at least 500 feet away from Ortega.
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