Illegal alien arrested for hitting juvenile outside grocery store

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Hugo Alberto Rodriguez-Rivera, 54, of Honduras, was arrested yesterday for allegedly punching a juvenile outside a grocery store after an argument about the juvenile riding on a mobility scooter.

At about 5:26 p.m. on June 26, a Gainesville Police Department officer responded to the Winn-Dixie on NW 23rd Avenue and spoke with Rodriguez-Rivera, who reportedly said the able-bodied juvenile victim was riding on a mobility scooter, so he confronted him; he said the victim called him racial slurs and spit at him, so he hit him.

The 17-year-old victim reportedly said he and his friend were walking outside Winn-Dixie, and he got on a mobility scooter; he said Rodriguez-Rivera walked past them and then came back and made a comment about the victim using the scooter without a disability. The victim said he told Rodriguez-Rivera repeatedly to go away, but Rodriguez-Rivera refused and then hit him on the side of his face. The victim said he got up and faced Rodriguez-Rivera, who yelled at him and eventually walked away.

The officer reported that the victim did not have a visible injury on his face, but he said he had a cut inside his mouth.

The officer viewed surveillance video from the store, which showed Rodriguez-Rivera walking back and forth outside the store when the victim and his friend come walking along the sidewalk and get to the mobility scooter; the victim gets on it, and they continue in the same direction. As they cross paths with Rodriguez-Rivera, he appears to speak briefly with the victim, but nothing aggressive happens. Rodriguez-Rivera walks away, and the victim appears to be looking at something in his lap while his friend stands nearby; then Rodriguez-Rivera comes back, walks rapidly toward the victim, and punches him while the victim is looking in the other direction. The officer reported that the victim’s head “visibly jolts to the side from the impact.” The victim gets up and faces Rodriguez-Rivera, but the victim never approaches Rodriguez-Rivera. Rodriguez-Rivera keeps walking toward the victim, yelling, while the victim backs up, until Rodriguez-Rivera eventually walks away. The officer reported that the victim and his friend never spat on Rodriguez-Rivera or made any attempt to harm him.

Post Miranda, Rodriguez-Rivera said again that the victim had spit on him, and he retaliated by hitting the victim.

Rodriguez-Rivera has been charged with child abuse without great bodily harm. He was identified by his Honduran driver’s license and is being held on an ICE detainer.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.