A 63-year-old disabled veteran who was assaulted after asking a couple to get out of his VIP seat at a Florida movie theater says they “just went to town” — as shocking new footage shows he had a bloodied, broken nose.
The vicious attack took place July 10 at the AMC in Pompano Beach, when the unidentified man went to take his pre-booked seats for a screening of “Insidious: The Red Door,” only to find them already occupied by a man and a woman.
After being asked to move out, the younger man savagely knocked the man to the ground and punched him on the head, his shirt splattered with blood as his wife looked on helplessly.
The man was taken to hospital and required stitches to his head, and new photos show a huge bump on his forehead from the attack caught on camera by a fellow moviegoer.
In a video interview over the weekend, the victim – who declined to be named – showed some of the damage he sustained during the scare. Meanwhile, his attacker remains a fugitive.
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A man who was stabbed last week at a Florida movie theater by a suspect who is still at large has spoken out, revealing he suffered a broken nose in the filmed attack
“It happened so fast, he basically made fun of me,” the victim told NBC Miami on Friday, about two weeks after he and his wife bought the tickets for the July 10 broadcast of “Insidious: The Red Door.”
“I didn’t think anyone would be stupid enough to actually start a fight like that in the movies,” he told NBC Miami on Friday, revealing that he was hospitalized after the incident and received an undetermined number of stitches.
“It happened so fast, he slapped me,” the victim said NBCMiami Friday, about two weeks after he and his wife bought tickets for the July 10th broadcast of ‘Insidious: The Red Door’ – advanced seat selection included.
“I couldn’t even get a defensive shot into it,” he recalled.
The man went on to recount the attack as he remembered it, which he said began when he and his wife arrived at the Pompano Beach theater, where they saw the other couple sitting in their seats.
Under the condition that his face be blurred, the victim described how he “politely” asked the two to move just before the confrontation turned physical — and before another moviegoer pulled out a phone to record the attack.
He went on to claim that after not being well received by the man, he gave up the seats – and started looking elsewhere. However, he said the conflict resumed when he was viciously ambushed by the aggressor, who he recalled, “kept staring.”
“This man just kept staring at me instead of getting up,” he told the station.
“I said to the people at that point, who didn’t apologize or thank you, I said, ‘You guys can keep the seats.’
Then, ‘as I walk away,’ he continued, ‘he said ‘go to your wife, little boy.’
“So I turned around and said, ‘You know I’m not the one who’s a little boy – you sat in my seats and 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 that followed.
The victim recalled how he felt like a “boxer.” [backed] against the ropes” during the surprise attack that followed – in which he was pushed against a railing and then hung several feet above an aisle.
“He jumped up, he wanted to fight me, he supported me,” he recalled Friday, 10 days after photos taken after the attack showed him a bloodied mess.
“I fell down the stairs and as soon as I fell down the stairs it was like a boxer hit the ropes, this guy just went to town on me.”
Referring to the footage, the victim added that several witnesses and his wife tried to stop the man during the attack, but were unsuccessful.
He also recalled how the man and his female companion – both of whom can be seen on surveillance footage taken from the theater but whose names have not yet been released by police – fled the theater immediately afterwards and how he was completely caught off guard by the attack.
“I didn’t think anyone would be stupid enough to actually start a fight like that in the movies,” he admitted — adding that he was hospitalized after the incident to treat a broken nose and get an undetermined number of stitches.
“He jumped up, he wanted to fight me, he supported me,” he recalls, 10 days after photos taken after the attack showed him a bloodied mess
Grainy footage showed him falling down the stairs in the theater’s aisle during a particularly heated part of the exchange — in which he was punched several times after asking a man and woman sitting in his seats during the July 10 show to move
The man filmed beating the moviegoer can be seen walking down the theater corridor, with his female accomplice fluttering her hair as she follows behind
Cameras also captured an image of the attacker’s female companion, who has also yet to be identified
The Broward County police have since corroborated his account in an official Edition – and have launched a hunt for the culprit using the aforementioned security photos taken of him leaving the theatre.
According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the attack began when the unidentified man “aggressively stepped in the victim’s face” at the Pompano Beach movie theater, then quotes footage filmed by a Good Samaritan beginning shortly afterward.
“The subject got so close to the victim that it forced him to step back and land on the stairs in the aisle of the theater,” it said of how the attacker menacingly moved toward the victim, before physically pushing him against the railing.
“In the heated moment,” it continues, “the victim loses his balance and falls down the stairs.”
Police added that the subject is then “seen above the 63-year-old victim” before “punching him repeatedly in the face until witnesses come to the victim’s aid” and pulling him off.
The subject and adult female left the theater immediately afterwards.
According to the police, the victim suffered several injuries to his head and face.
“He was transported to a local hospital for treatment.”
On Sunday, the police are still looking for the suspect and any clues about the identity of his or his acquaintance. Their investigation is still ongoing. DailyMail.com has reached out for comment.