A Florida family was left horrified after watching their elderly mother get hit in the head by a frying pan-wielding attacker.
Fiorella Lopez told NBC Miami her 75-year-old mother was randomly assaulted while walking down the sidewalk near their Sunrise home on June 10.
She said the family was gathering for a birthday party when her sister noticed a suspicious person.
‘She’s walking alone, and my sister, who’s waiting for her at the entrance, notices someone two doors down, behaving strangely, and she begins to signal to my mother, who’s innocently walking,’ Lopez told Telemundo 51.
Disturbing footage showed the older woman trying to avoid the sidewalk when a shirtless man approached her.
The man, identified as 26-year-old Carlos Hurtado Florez, grabbed Lopez’s mother by the dress collar and then struck her in the head with a frying pan.
She fell over, and Lopez’s brother ran over to help, but Florez started to attack him, too.
‘And at that moment, my brother arrived, and he attacked my brother too. He also smashed his head in,’ Lopez said.
A Florida family is terrified after their 75-year-old mother was randomly stuck in the head by a frying pan-wielding attacker
Disturbing footage showed the older woman trying to avoid the sidewalk when a shirtless man approached her
The man grabbed Fiorella Lopez’s mother by the dress collar and then struck her in the head with a frying pan
Images showed the 75-year-old woman was left with horrific purple and black bruises covering her body.
‘My mother has several bruises on her face and leg. My brother’s head was split open,’ Lopez said.
Lopez said her family moved to South Florida from Venezuela in search of better life, but now they are frightened.
‘We came here for peace. We never imagined something like this could happen to our mother,’ she said.
‘And what the rest of us are experiencing is psychological damage. Emotional damage. We’re all terrified.’
Police said that minutes before the attack, Florez had beat up his brother inside his home and then vandalized his car.
He was arrested and charged with aggravated battery on a person 65 years of age or older, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and two additional charges of battery.
Lopez said she learned Florez has a previous criminal record, and that adds to their terror.
The attacker was identified as 26-year-old Carlos Hurtado Florez (pictured) and he was charged with aggravated battery on a person 65 years or older
Police said that minutes before the attack, Florez had beat up his brother inside his home and then vandalized his car (pictured)
‘We don’t know these people. The only thing that because it’s public record that he had, he already was involved in a crime last year,’ she said.
‘What I saw, he didn’t stay more than a month in the in the jail. So we are scared.’
