A man has been arrested for allegedly beating a person in Florida, authorities confirmed on Oct. 24.
Javier Jesus Lopez, 22, was taken into custody for beating a man who was walking around the neighborhood “handing out fliers,” according to a Hialeah Police Department report obtained by The Epoch Times.
Lopez allegedly confronted the man and told him he couldn’t pass by him, to which the man responded by moving across the street.
But Lopez pursued the man, prompting the man to say he was on public property, authorities said.
Lopez is accused of slamming the man against the ground and striking him multiple times, causing severe swelling to the man’s face and leaving his right eye completely swollen shut.
The incident took place on Sunday evening on East 60th Street.
The 27-year-old victim has not been identified.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) posted pictures of the man who was beaten. Rubio said on Twitter that the man was one of his campaign’s canvassers and was canvassing when he was “brutally attacked” by people “who told him Republicans weren’t allowed in their neighborhood in #Hialeah.”
The pictures showed the male victim whose face was badly beaten being transported from the scene in an ambulance.
The man was wearing a Marco Rubio shirt. Rubio said he was also wearing a Ron DeSantis hat when he was attacked.
Both Rubio and Gov. Ron DeSantis are both running for re-election. Both are Republicans.
The man suffered internal bleeding, a broken jaw & will need facial reconstructive surgery,” Rubio said of his supporter.
Rubio’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Sgt. Jose Torres, a police spokesman, declined to say whether the man was the same as the man police described as a victim.
Hialeah is located in Miami-Dade County.
A campaign spokesperson for Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), a former police chief challenging Rubio, told news outlets in a statement that Demings “strongly condemns all acts of violence and the attackers should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
“Campaign volunteers deserve to feel safe in every neighborhood, and we’re praying for a speedy recovery for the canvasser who was attacked last night,” the spokesperson said.
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