A 12-year-old Florida boy got punched in the mouth while walking home school from last week, and his mom demands to know why authorities didn’t arrest the adult responsible.
Fox4 reports that Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office deputies announced that Vincent Cerfalo, 27, punched the boy, Malikai, in the mouth after the child and a group of his friends reportedly surrounded Cerfalo on Sept. 20, in his Port Charlotte neighborhood.
Cerfalo said the boy and his friends became aggressive when he told the kids they were blocking the road and asked them to move out of the way. Cerfalo indicated that he felt threatened as the kids walked onto his property and surrounded him.
Vincent Cerfalo punched 12-year-old’s teeth out and called him the ‘N-word’ claims self-defensehttps://t.co/sJXWYoCpzL pic.twitter.com/9GFLX0TbYE
— WarOnWomen (@WarAgainstWomen) September 25, 2017
“I told them to back off and if they come on my property I’m going to defend myself. They said, ‘you won’t hit us, you won’t hit us,’ and they started to surround me,” Cerfalo told Fox4.
“He touched me and I lifted my hand out, and I ended up hitting him. It was not my intention to hit anybody that hard, it was not my intention to knock teeth out or do harm, or cause any kind of trouble.”
Brittany Graham, Malikai’s mother, told a completely different version of events. She said her son and his friends walked past Cerfalo’s home while on their way home from school at around 4 p.m., when they spotted Cerfalo on his front porch, drinking beer.
“He told the ‘n– children’ to get off of his street,” Graham said.
Graham said her son walked up closer to Cerfalo and asked him what the issue was, and that’s when Cerfalo reportedly told him to come closer so he could show him.
“Come in arm’s length and I’ll show you,” Cerfalo allegedly said.
Graham stated that when her son told the man no, he punched the boy three times in the face, knocking out a few of his front teeth.
One of the boy’s friends gave a similar version of events as Graham. She admitted that Malikai told Cerfalo to “shut up” when the man yelled at them. However, the friend said that no one ever went onto the man’s property, but he still attacked Malikai by throwing a beer at him and hitting him three times in the face.
Another witness, however, said that the boy pushed Cerfalo first while standing on his property and taunted Cerfalo by telling him he wouldn’t hit back.
Cerfalo said he never called the boy any racist names and that when he asked the kids to move out of the road, they told him the road was “their block.” He said Malikai charged after him with his friends in tow, and he warned the boy he would hit him if he walked onto his property.
Due to the differing accounts, authorities didn’t arrest anyone and instead, turned the case over to the State Attorney’s Office.
Cerfalo said he planned to press assault charges against Malikai, something his mother said she didn’t quite understand.
“How did he feel threatened enough to hit a child hard enough to knock out his two front teeth?” Graham asked. “As an adult, should have walked away. He’s going to have a scar on his face for the rest of his life.”
The State Attorney’s Office is currently reviewing the case. Check back with CrimeOnline as additional information becomes available.
[Feature Photo: Screenshot/Fox4]
