Sante Fe, NM — Derrick Manuel, the bloody guy to the left, was brutally beaten by three men earlier this week after he accidentally hit a 5-year-old girl that darted in front of his vehicle in a grocery store parking lot.
As is apparent in the attached surveillance video, the car in which the child was riding stops in the middle of the parking lot. The girl jumps out, runs behind the vehicle and straight into the path of Manuel’s truck. When Manuel attempted to climb out of his truck to check on the child, three of the kiddos relatives jumped him.
“At one point, I was going to pass out,” said 49-year-old Manuel. “They were hitting my face, they were hitting me, hitting me.”
Both Manuel and the child were taken to the hospital for treatment and later released. No word on the girl’s injuries, but authorities said they were minor. Manuel suffered cuts, swelling and contusions to his face during the rumble, which police say had to be broken up by witnesses.
Manuel wasn’t cited in the incident, as it was clearly an accident.
“He was doing the right thing. He stopped. He didn’t flee. There’s no indication from our witness statements and surveillance video that he was trying to flee,” Santa Fe police Lt. Louis Carlos said. There was also no indication that Manuel was speeding.
The three men accused of beating the snot out of him weren’t arrested either.
“Because we didn’t witness the fight or the punching, it falls in the realm of a misdemeanor,” said Lt. Louis Carlos.
The case was turned over to the Santa Fe County District Attorney’s Office and the D.A. will decide if the men will face misdemeanor battery charges, said Carlos.
The kid’s mother, however, thinks Manuel is getting off too easy.
“He was in the wrong by running the stop sign and speeding when there’s families, there’s kids, there are newborns,” said Patrece Visarraga.
Damn those sneaky newborns, darting in and out of traffic….
Manuel is a little peeved that his attackers weren’t arrested.
“There’s no way they can keep beating someone like that,” said Manuel. “I’m upset at the parents for not controlling their child.”
Amen, Manuel.
Girl hit by car, driver beaten by family: krqe.com
Tags: Accident, assault and battery, Derrick Manuel, New Mexico
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