Beating of mom, girl at Florida gas station captured on video
A young woman brutally attacked a mother and her 11-year-old daughter in a Florida gas station parking lot in a display of violence that was caught on clear-asday security video, according to authorities and media reports.
The woman walloped both mother and child and dragged the girl out of a pickup truck before wailing on a third woman. A young man she was with also got into the action, assaulting the mother’s boyfriend, according to reports.
The apparently unprovoked beating happened Sept. 22 outside a Circle K in Silver Springs, about 80 miles northwest of Orlando.
The victims told investigators they didn’t know their attackers.
The footage of the melee was so clear that investigators were able to “easily” identify the suspected attackers and arrest them not long after watching the video, the Marion County Sheriff ’s Office said.
Arrested were Julia Napiontek and Brandon Clanton, both 18.
The video shows a woman standing beside a red pickup truck when, according to investigators, Napiontek approaches with Clanton. The footage didn’t capture sound, but it’s clear that Napiontek and the woman exchange words in OPEN SUNDAYS 8:30AM - 2PM what appears to be a confrontation.
“The victims told deputies that they did not previously know their attackers, and that there was not motive for the confrontation,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.
The woman by the pickup truck begins to walk toward Napiontek and Napiontek starts throwing punches at the woman — identified in media reports as Tersa Elghali — and apparently dragging her by the hair.
According to WKMG ClickOrlando, the 11-year-old girl is Elghali’s daughter, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of the pickup. She steps out of the truck and Napiontek punches her.
The girl appears to fall back into the truck and Napiontek pulls her out while beating her, according to the sheriff ’s office.
Meanwhile another woman gets out of the bed of the pickup and is also punched and dragged by Napiontek, who then walks away, but not before pushing the girl from behind to the ground.
The violence subsides for a few seconds before the man identified as Clanton is shown approaching somebody and appearing to punch them just outside the camera’s field of view.
WKMG ClickOrlando, citing sheriff ’s investigators, reported that Clanton attacked Elghali’s boyfriend, Jason Ellis.
The sheriff ’s office said Clanton was out on bond at the time in connection with another violent assault at a convenience store in which he allegedly hit a 17-year-old several times. The victim needed stitches to his face.
Napiontek faces charges of battery and aggravated child abuse; Clanton faces charges of battery and simple assault on a law enforcement officer. MON-SAT 8:30-5:00 • SUN 8:30AM-2PM