A Florida man is facing assault charges after he allegedly attacked two woman over a handicapped parking space at a church last year.
John Gaston Phillips, 65, of Orlando, was taken into custody on February 10, nearly five months after the September 25 incident, the Miami Herald reported.
Investigators say the two women, one of whom is elderly and disabled, were picking up a five-year-old girl from St. John Vianney Catholic School and had parked in a handicapped parking space near the front entrance.
When they returned to their car with the child – who is the older woman’s granddaughter and the 22-year-old aunt’s niece – they tried to leave, but a man in a black truck had parked in front of them, blocking the way.
The victims told investigators that the man yelled about parking in the handicapped parking spot as he waved his handicap sticker at them, the paper reported.
When the child’s grandmother, who is disabled, tried to show the man her handicap placard, he insisted it did not belong to them and believed the pair had arrived in separate cars and were using one handicapped placard for two cars.
Investigators said the man then got out of the truck and approached the victims’ car, telling them that he would not let them leave until security got involved.
The child’s aunt got out of the car to face the man and explained that they had arrived together in one vehicle and had no association with the second car he believed she had gotten out of.
She later told investigators she had gotten out of the car to confront him because she feared for the safety of her mother and niece and wanted to keep him away from them.
Surveillance footage from the church obtained by the authorities then reportedly shows the argument as it escalates into a physical fight when the man shoves the car door at the woman, who then tries to push him away.
The man punches the woman in the face and throws her to the ground, according to the report obtained by the Miami Herald.
A second woman, the grandmother of the child and mother of the 22-year-old victim, got out of the car and tried to intervene, but was also attacked by the man who pushed her to the ground.
He then walked back to his truck and drove off as the school staff came out after hearing the women scream.
Phillips was later identified by the women in photographic lineups as the man who allegedly attacked them, records show. He is also the registered owner of the truck for the license plate provided by the victims.
Deputies with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office arrested Phillips on Monday and he’s being held in the Orange County jail on an $11,000 bond.
He faces charges of aggravated battery, abuse of the elderly or a disabled adult and two counts of false imprisonment.
