MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — Two South Florida men are facing felony charges after allegedly assaulting a Miami-Dade County code enforcement officer.
The incident happened on Oct. 9 in the area of Southwest 288th Street and 157th Avenue.
According to authorities, the victim was wearing his Miami-Dade Code Enforcement uniform and driving in his county-issued vehicle, which also was marked with the logos of Miami-Dade Code Enforcement, when he noticed a dark-colored pickup truck behind him flashing its lights.
The occupants of the pickup truck then began to yell at the victim, claiming he was driving too slow and looking at his phone, and that’s when the victim turned on his body-worn camera, deputies said.
When both vehicles came to a stop at the incident intersection, they said the victim got out of his vehicle in order to take a picture of the pickup truck, at which time the two men inside the pickup also got out.
That’s when deputies said one of the suspects, identified as Niosly Rodriguez, 37, took a fighting stance and struck the victim, after which the victim was stopped by both suspects from trying to get back into his vehicle when they pinned him between the door and the car.
Deputies said Rodriguez again struck the victim, knocking him to the ground, and then chased after him when the victim tried to get away. An arrest report states Gonzalez could be heard in body camera footage telling his accomplice, identified as Idael Alejandro Vazquez Vargas, “to leave the victim be, as he would kill him.”
According to an arrest report, after placing the vehicle between himself and the suspects, the victim turned his body camera toward Rodriguez and Vargas, and they could be heard saying that the victim was on his phone and, upon hearing him call for assistance, the suspects got back in their car and took off.
Authorities said they were able to identify the suspects through investigative means and distributed a probable cause flyer while trying to locate them.
On Wednesday, deputies said Rodriguez was taken into custody on Wednesday along the 25000 block of Southwest 130th Avenue just before noon while Vargas, 25, turned himself in at the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office South District Station about an hour later.
Deputies said both suspects separately provided a self-serving statement to detectives.
Both suspects were taken to Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a felony charge of battery on a code inspector.
They remained there as of Thursday morning with a bond listed as “to be set.”
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