SWEETWATER, FLA. (WSVN) - The suspect in a stabbing incident at the movie theater in Dolphin Mall appeared in bond court.
Monday, 56-year-old Luis Reynaldo Chavez faced a judge on a list of charges.
“This is very violent,” said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Renatha S. Francis. “You are being charged with aggravated battery with bodily harm … and resisting an officer without violence.”
Officials said the suspect got into an altercation with another moviegoer inside of an auditorium.
“The defendant told the victim to stop bumping his seat with his foot. The victim said, ‘I never touched your chair,'” said a prosecutor.
It was then that, authorities said, Chavez hurled a homophobic slur at the man.
“The two got into some type of verbal altercation and then escalated into a physical altercation,” said Sweetwater Police Officer Jonathan Arche.
According to the arrest affidavit, Chavez pulled out a pocket knife and stabbed the other man “giving a wound to the victim on his lower left side of his abdomen and a laceration on right arm that measured from his bicep to his forearm.”
The affidavit also stated, “Defendant then fled the scene running while being followed by the victim’s mother who was yelling, ‘Don’t let him go. He hurt my son.’”
“Police responded very quickly to the movie theater,” said Arche. “We were able to take the subject into custody, and the victim was transported to the hospital.”
Rescue crews took the victim to Kendall Regional Medical Center, where he was treated and released.
“It’s extremely unfortunate that somebody would do this to another person,” said Arche, “and we take these things very seriously here.”
But police said that’s exactly what Chavez did. However, Arche said moviegoers and shoppers at Dolphin Mall have every reason to feel safe.
“It’s safe to go to the mall and to the movie theater, and we do have officers there all the time,” he said.
Several members of the suspect’s family were in attendance at Monday’s hearing, as his bond was set at $16,500.
Once he is released, Chavez will be fitted with an ankle monitor and remain under “house arrest with standard conditions,” Francis said.
Chavez is also facing a charge of tampering with evidence. Police said he tried to dump the knife at a women’s bathroom before he was arrested.
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