MIAMI (WSVN) - Police have arrested two men after they allegedly assaulted a peaceful protester in Miami’s Midtown neighborhood.
Witnesses said the protester, identified as 29-year-old Richard Dombroff, was playing Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech on the speaker in the green space at the Shops of Midtown in the area Northeast First Avenue and 34th Street at around 5:30 p.m., Thursday.
“[I was trying to] spread the message of love that Dr. Martin Luther King tried to spread,” said Dombroff.
Officials said two men approached Dombroff and told him to “turn that [expletive] [expletive] off,” according to the arrest report.
When the 29-year-old refused, the situation escalated, resulting in one of the men punching Dombroff and the other shoving him.
Part of the scuffle was captured in a cellphone video from an apartment balcony.
“I was hit in the nose, unfortunately,” he said. “I thought that Dr. Martin Luther King’s message was unassailable. Who could not like that?”
People inside of the nearby Tap 42 were listening to the speech playing over the speaker.
“With him playing the speech on the loudspeaker intercom, everybody in the apartments heard it,” Aaron Ivy, the restaurant’s manager, said.
“They were really, like, chanting them on,” John Curry, the restaurant’s general manager, said. “They were like, ‘Yes, we love it.’ They were clapping, and it was cool. It was like the community was coming together. I see two gentlemen run back into our patio, and I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on at this point. He comes over, and I see that he has, like, a bloody nose.”
Witnesses said the assailants also tried to throw his speaker onto the floor, and several individuals nearby stepped in to defend the 29-year-old.
The people inside of the restaurant called police, who took the two men into custody.
The alleged assailants have been identified as 42-year-old Samuel Munoz and 51-year-old James Butler. Both men are facing battery charges.
Dombroff said while the attack was unexpected, it will not slow him down.
“Absolutely, 100% will continue to peacefully be out there,” he said. “I think more than anything, it shows me I’m doing the right thing by getting the message out there.”
Munoz and Butler have since bonded out of jail.
Munoz’s attorney said that the men were acting in self-defense. He claimed that Dumbroff not only played the speaker at an unacceptable level but he also swung the megaphone at Munoz and Butler.
Police are investigating those claims.
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