PARKLAND, Fla. – A Parkland business owner was still recovering from injuries Friday after a Coral Springs man, furious that he was asked to move his car from a parking space, knocked him to the ground.
The attack happened earlier this month outside the Parkland International Music and Art School on State Road 7.
Forty-nine-year-old Diego Gaviria said he asked 41-year-old Ray Batista to move his car from a spot reserved for the business. He placed a notice on Batista’s car.
“You cannot park here,” Gaviria tells the man on surveillance video.
“Don’t put that paper on my car,” Batista replied.
“I am trying to be nice,” Gaviria said.
Batista replied that he didn’t “care about nice.”
Gaviria said Batista went and put the notice on the school’s door.
The 6-foot-4, 240 pound Batista, furious about the situation, punches Gaviria, who falls to the ground and was knocked unconscious.
“I’m not the one to play with, n----,” Batista, a student at the nearby Boca Beauty Academy, is heard on video repeatedly gloating.
Gaviria was left with serious injuries to his head and face.
“I still have a big bump here,” Gaviria said. “I have headaches every day. I take a pill for the pain. I have a pain in my neck.”
Gaviria called the attack “scary” and is afraid to go back to work.
“You don’t ever expect for that to happen,” he said.
Broward deputies arrested Batista, who was charged with battery and has since bonded out of jail.
Batista was also kicked out of beauty school. A representative from Boca Beauty Academy said the school doesn’t condone his behavior.
Gaviria said he’s working to get a restraining order against Batista.