A newly released video showed the moment a tenant was pummeled by his neighbor’s guests after he complained about their loud music during a Christmas Day party.
The 29-year-old victim, who identified himself as Lucas, can be seen holding his dog by the leash and arguing with the two men and a woman outside the building in Recoleta, an affluent neighborhood in the Argentine city of Buenos Aires.
Lucas was slapped in the arm by one of the men and then began to walk away when the same individual approached him from behind and hit his ear.
He then responded by throwing a punch before the two men pinned him against a column and landed several punches.
The defenseless tenant crashed to the ground, where the men continued the assault.
The woman hit Lucas with his own sandals and joined the men in berating him as sat upright.
‘When I fell to the ground they didn’t stop hitting me, I thought they were going to kill me, that they weren’t going to stop,’ Lucas told Argentine news outlet A24.
Lucas explained that he spent Christmas Day away from his home and returned around 7pm when he heard the music blaring loudly from an events hall that is located on the last floor, above his apartment.
Lucas (seen in the red shirt) was beaten by his neighbor’s guest outside his apartment building in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Christmas Day after he asked the group if they could lower the loud music they were playing in an events hall located above his apartment. The 29-year-old declined to press charges
Lucas tried to sit upright while a woman berated him after her two male companions savagely assaulted him
He was in the elevator when he confronted the three individuals, including the man who rents an apartment in the building, and asked them if they could lower the music volume.
‘One of them told me that they couldn’t, the woman told me that I was bitter and that it was Christmas and we had to celebrate,’ Lucas said.
Despite insisting and repeatedly being told that they would not oblige, Lucas decided it was not worth trying.
However, the woman and the two men reportedly kept harassing him before the incident escalated.
‘When I turned around, he hit me in the ear and, as a defensive reaction, I threw a punch and then the three of them came at me,’ Lucas said.
Two police officers on patrol intervened, but Lucas declined to file a police report.
The local prosecutor’s office did open an investigation and expect to charge the suspects, all Colombian nationals, who were still on the run as of Tuesday.
Lucas (pictured in the red shirt) was assaulted by his neighbor’s guests in front of the building where he lives in Recoleta, a high-end neighborhood in the Argentina city of Buenos Aires on Christmas Day. The 29-year-old told Argentine news outlet A24:’ I thought they were going to kill me, that they weren’t going to stop’
‘He was not killed by chance,’ Lucas’ lawyer said, as quoted by La Nación newspaper.
The beating took place the same day a former police officer shot and killed his neighbor over a noise complaint in the Buenos Aires town of Lomas del Mirador.
Video footage showed Rafael Moreno, 74, approaching a house party attendee and pulling out a .38 caliber revolver before the victim, Sergio Díaz, 40, intervened.
Moreno was questioned about drawing the weapon on them and then slapped him in the face before the retired federal police agent shot Díaz in the abdomen.
Díaz was rushed to an area hospital, where he died from the gunshot wound several hours later.
