MIAMI — Miami police arrested a 73-year-old man they said stabbed another man on a county bus on Christmas. According to police, the victim told officers that he had gotten into an argument with the suspect after wishing him a happy holiday.
According to a Miami Police Department arrest report, the incident happened just after 12:15 p.m. downtown in the area of Southwest Second Avenue and Second Street.
Police said officers arrived to find the victim “bleeding from his left arm and pointing at the bus.” Medics took him to Jackson Memorial Hospital for stitches.
According to the report, the victim told officers that he had gotten on the bus and was speaking to a friend when Reynaldo Ortega joined the conversation.
He told officers that he wished Ortega a “Merry Christmas” and “attempted to shake his hand,” but Ortega “slapped his hand away, began arguing and pulled out a knife.”
Authorities said the bus driver stopped the bus and Ortega sat in front. According to the report, the victim called 911 and tried to put the bus driver on the phone with MPD, but the bus driver told the man “he couldn’t talk on the phone” and the victim walked to the back of the bus.
That led to a physical fight in which Ortega stabbed the victim, police said; the incident was captured on CCTV cameras.
According to the report, Ortega told police that he stabbed the victim because the victim was “being aggressive with him.”
Police arrested Ortega on a charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and an outstanding warrant for driving on a suspended license.
As of Friday morning, he was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with a bond listed as “to be set” in online jail records.
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