Two women in Florida brought a street-side argument into a restaurant, where the confrontation escalated into a stabbing, according to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office (MDSO).
An arrest affidavit states that the women had been panhandling outside Fritanga Pinolandia on Wednesday, Nov. 26, when the situation allegedly turned violent after one woman refused a request for money. The dispute moved inside the restaurant, where one of the women, identified as 22-year-old Damaris Rodriguez, allegedly punched and stabbed the other in the shoulder and back.
Rodriguez was arrested on a charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Her arrest came just 13 days after she had been released on her own recognizance following an October cocaine possession arrest two blocks away from the restaurant.
According to the affidavit, which listed Rodriguez’s residence as “homeless,” Deputy Charles Castillo saw her running from the scene and apprehended her nearby. Castillo and Sgt. Anthony Rodriguez reported that she made a spontaneous statement claiming, “It was self-defense, she was abusing me.”
Detectives later interviewed the victim at Jackson Ryder Trauma Center, where she was treated for a laceration to her right shoulder blade and received a stitch. In a sworn, recorded statement, the victim said she saw Rodriguez outside the restaurant “begging people for money” and believed she was trying to buy illicit substances.
The victim told detectives that Rodriguez became angry when no one gave her money, began cursing to herself, and then followed the victim into the business before attacking her.
A viral video of the incident shows the victim, a Black woman, and the woman alleged to be Rodriguez, a white woman, standing off inside the restaurant. The suspect is seen aggressively approaching the victim while holding a cutting instrument in her right hand and making “multiple downward stabs” toward the victim’s head. She is also heard repeatedly yelling an expletive-laced insult and saying, “I’m going to kill you,” according to the affidavit.
In her own sworn, Mirandized statement, Rodriguez allegedly told detectives that she pulled a pair of scissors from a brown pillow and “took multiple stabs” at the victim’s head before fleeing north, then east, dropping her pillowcase and bag as police arrived.
Detectives later recovered her belongings and found the scissors inside a blood-covered brown leather bag. Rodriguez was taken to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center for booking.
Restaurant manager Bernardo Ruiz previously told CBS News Miami that incidents like this are part of a wider problem in the area.
“This is something that happens in Miami-Dade,” Ruiz said. “We have a huge problem with the homeless, and the police [don’t] do anything about it. We need help. Our business is getting worse with the situation we have in Florida.”
Fritanga Pinolandia, which is currently closed, has not publicly commented on the incident.
