A man who was beaten by still-at-large suspects in a Florida movie theater last week has spoken out — revealing he suffered a broken nose during the filmed attack.
The incident happened July 10 at the AMC Pompano Theater in Pompano Beach, and left the 63-year-old victim bloodied, hospitalized and in stitches — after she asked the much younger suspect to move out of a seat she had paid for in advance.
Footage captured by another moviegoer also shows the entire altercation – and how the victim was hit and repeatedly punched by the suspect, while others, including his wife, looked on helplessly.
Now being used as part of a police investigation, it also shows how the victim initially civilly asked her attacker why she and her female companion were in pre-booked VIP seats, but was instead met with a violent assault.
Appearing in a video interview over the weekend, the victim – who did not want to be named – showed some of the damage he suffered during the scare and identified himself as a disabled veteran. Meanwhile, his assailant is on the run.
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A man who was beaten by still-at-large suspects in a Florida movie theater last week has spoken out — revealing he suffered a broken nose while filming the attack.
Footage captured by another moviegoer also showed the entire altercation – and how the victim was pushed and punched repeatedly by the suspect, while others, including his wife, looked on helplessly.
‘It happened so fast, he basically punched me,’ the victim told NBC Miami on Friday, about two weeks after he and his wife bought tickets for the July 10 airing of ‘Insidious: The Red Door’ – which includes advanced seat selection.
‘I couldn’t even take a defensive shot,’ he remembers.
The man began recalling the attack, which he said began when he and his wife arrived at the Pompano Beach theater only to find other couples in their seats.
Speaking on condition that her face would blur, the victim described how she ‘politely’ asked the two to move moments before the confrontation – and before another filmgoer whipped out a phone to record the attack.
He went on to claim that after the man didn’t take it well, he gave up the seat – and started looking the other way. However, she said the confrontation resumed when she continued to be harassed by the aggressor, who she recalled, ‘just stared.’
‘This guy kept looking at me instead of getting up,’ he told the station.
‘I told people at this point, who didn’t apologize or say thank you, I said ‘you can just keep the seats.’
Then, ‘as I was leaving,’ he continued, ‘he said, ‘Run to your wife.’
‘So I turned around and said, “You know I’m not a little boy – you took my seat and you didn’t apologize, or you didn’t say thank you, and I let you keep them.”‘
At that point, the victim said, the man became hostile and another audience member began recording the violent attack.
The grainy footage shows a man falling down a flight of stairs in the theater aisle during a particularly heated exchange – during the July 10 run – during which he was punched several times after telling a man and a woman in their seats to move.
‘I didn’t think anyone would actually be stupid enough to start a fight like that in a movie,’ he told NBC Miami on Friday, adding that he was hospitalized and received an unspecified number of stitches after the incident.
“He jumped, he wanted to fight me, he supported me,” he recalled, after being photographed 10 days after the attack, showing him a bloody mess.
‘It happened so fast, he basically punched me,’ the victim told NBC Miami on Friday, nearly two weeks after he and his wife bought tickets for the July 10 screening of ‘Insidious: The Red Door.’
The man who assaulted the moviegoer is seen walking down the aisle of the theater, his female colleague tousling his hair as he walks behind him.
The cameras also captured an image of the attacker’s female companion, who has yet to be identified
The victim recalled how he felt like a ‘boxer’ [backed] What happened during the ‘against the ropes’ surprise attack – this time he was pushed against a railing and dangled several feet over an exit corridor.
“He jumped, he wanted to fight me, he supported me,” he recalled Friday, 10 days after the attack, in which he was photographed in a bloody mess.
Several punches were thrown in the scuffle, none of which landed from the fleeing victim. Footage At one point in the footage, the victim is seen lying on the floor as the suspect continues to beat him from above.
‘I fell down the stairs and as I fell down the stairs it was like a boxer against the ropes, this guy just went to town on me.’
Citing the footage, the victim added that several witnesses and his wife tried to stop the man during the attack, but failed.
He also recalled how the man and his female companion – both of whom can be seen on surveillance footage taken from the theater but have not yet been named by police – immediately fled the theater and how he was completely shocked by the attack.
The attacker got so close to the victim that she had to take a step back and ended up standing on the stairs in the theater aisle, as a trailer for the new Mission Impossible installment plays on the screen.
The attacker then stood over the man and began punching him in the head and face, stopping only after witnesses dragged him away. Ten days after the attack, he remains unaccounted for
‘I didn’t think anyone would actually be stupid enough to start a fight like that in a movie,’ he admitted – adding that he was hospitalized after the incident to treat a broken nose and receive an unspecified number of stitches.
Broward County cops have since corroborated his account in an official release — and launched a manhunt for the culprit using his aforementioned security stoles as he exited the theater.
According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the attack began with the unknown man ‘aggressively thrusting into the victim’s face’ inside the Pompano Beach movie theater, citing footage captured by a Good Samaritan that began shortly after.
‘The subject got so close to the victim that it forced him to take a step back, ending up on the stairs in the theater aisle,’ it said, describing how the attacker menacingly advanced towards the victim before physically pushing him against the railing.
‘In the heat of the moment,’ it continued, ‘the victim lost his balance and fell down the stairs.’
Police added that the subject was then seen ‘standing over the 63-year-old victim’ before ‘repeatedly punching him in the face until witnesses came to the victim’s aid’ and pulled him away.
The subject and the adult woman immediately left the theater.
The victim, police said, suffered multiple injuries to her head and face.
‘He was taken to a local hospital for treatment.’
As of Sunday, police were still looking for the suspect and any information about his identity or his acquaintances. Their investigation is still ongoing. Newstimesuk.com has approached for comment.
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