Video shows teens beating man on South Beach street
A group of teens riding bicycles chased a man through the streets of Miami Beach this week and beat him, according to police.
Footage of the attack, which happened around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, was captured on security cameras mounted on several area businesses.
About 10 bicyclists are seen chasing the victim, named in a police report as Daniel Cioforelli, 34, from South Beach. When they catch up to him, one of them hops off his bike and tackles him. Five or six of the teens then start punching and kicking him and throwing him to the ground.
Meanwhile, several bystanders are seen in the video doing nothing to help Cioforelli. Some are even seen shooting video of the attack on their phones.
The attack lasts about 30 seconds. Police arrived about a minute after the last punch was thrown, according to the video.
Cioforelli did not immediately respond to requests to comments. According to a Miami Beach police report, he was left with cuts on his leg and hand and a bruise under his eye.
Police have made one arrest in the case so far, a 13-year-old boy.
According to his arrest report, two Miami Beach police officers saw him heading north in the 1100 block of Washington Avenue moments after the attack on Ciforelli.
The boy crashed his bike into a motor scooter as he tried getting away from the officers, but they detained him. He faces a charge of misdemeanor battery. Police called his mother to pick him up at the Juvenile Assessment Center, according to the report.
News of the attack outraged Miami Beach residents, some of whom recounted instances in which they were harassed by similar groups of young bicyclists.
Alex Bichel, 51, told the Miami Herald he believes the same group chased him into a McDonald’s restaurant two years ago after he told them off for riding too close to an older woman who had been walking on the sidewalk.
“I said something like, ‘Watch out for the old lady,’ and they stopped and totally surrounded me,” Bichel said Friday.
Bichel said the same group nearly hit him with their bicycles on Lincoln Road about a year ago as he and his family were riding along the popular retail strip.
If groups like these continue antagonizing strangers on the street, he said, someone might wind up dead.
“It’s going to turn into a bad situation,” he said.
David Goodhue: 305-923-9728, @DavidGoodhue