News

Cane used in beating over parking spot

ATLANTA — Cellphone video from outside a Piedmont Avenue store shows a man attacking a disabled man with his own cane and then hitting the man's girlfriend as well.
 
"It was just absolutely barbaric," the victim told Channel 2's Amy Napier Viteri.
 
He asked not to be identified by name but said he and his girlfriend Ummi were leaving a Midtown pet store when they found a black Jaguar illegally parked, blocking them into the parking lot.
 
The man said they waited several minutes before the woman driving the car came outside. He said she became confrontational after they suggested she was rude and asked her to move her vehicle. At that point, the victims told Viteri a man inside the Jaguar got out and began to argue with them. He took the victim's cane, which he uses to walk because he wears a leg brace from a knee injury.
 
He said the man started hitting him with his cane and then began to hit Ummi when she tried to protect her handicapped boyfriend.
 
"He immediately and with the cane that he had, he is holding her arm and smashing as hard as he can," he said.
 
"I didn't know he was going to hit me," Ummi said. "I thought if I go between as a woman he's not going to raise a hand to me."
 
The man said he needs reconstructive surgery to repair a broken orbital bone, broken sinuses and fractured cheek bone.
 
Atlanta police said they have strong leads in the case and are moving forward in the investigation.