MIAMI — A Miami woman is facing serious felony charges over what police said was a racially-motivated pair of attempts to run over a mail carrier.
Miami police said it happened on Tuesday around 4:25 p.m. near suspect Lourdes Maria Portugues’ home, located in the 1000 block of Northwest 18th Place in the city’s Little Havana neighborhood.
According to police, the United States Postal Service carrier, who is a Black woman, was walking her route when a child approached her to collect mail for their home.
That’s when police said Portugues, 34, yelled at the child, ‘Don’t talk to her, we don’t talk to n-----s.”
While the victim continued to deliver the mail, police said Portugues then picked up a hose from the front yard and sprayed the victim with water, which prompted the victim to call 911.
According to an arrest form, Portugues then collected her purse and got into her SUV, a silver Lincoln Nautilus, and tried to run over the mail carrier , causing her to take cover behind a parked car, before putting the SUV in reverse and driving toward her again.
After accelerating past the victim again, police said Portugues then made a U-turn at the end of the block and again drove toward her at a high rate of speed, causing “several witnesses and the victim all” to run “toward the sidewalk, away from the defendant’s vehicle to avoid being struck,” according to an arrest form.
That’s when authorities said Portugues parked in front of her home and yelled at the victim, “I’m going to shoot you, I have a gun inside my house” before going inside.
Police said a witness, who was identified as Portugues’ minor child, told officers that when Portugues went back inside, she “started to put bullets in a gun in her room,” according to an arrest form.
Responding officers said they found a pellet gun, along with rounds for the gun, inside Portugues’ room.
Officers also said that surveillance video and witness statements corroborated the victim’s account of how the events transpired.
Portugues is facing two felony charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon with prejudice. She is currently being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a bond listed as “to be set.”
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