Inset: Christian Salgado (Miami-Dade Corrections). Background: The Walmart in Hialeah, Fla., where authorities say Salgado attacked a man in the parking lot (Google Maps).
A confrontation described by police as a road rage incident outside a Florida Walmart escalated into a violent assault that left a man with severe head injuries as his pregnant girlfriend and a child were nearby, authorities said.
Christian Salgado, 46, has been charged with aggravated battery. A probable cause arrest affidavit says Salgado and the victim first became involved in a verbal dispute while both were in their vehicles in the parking lot of the Walmart at 400 W. 49th St. in Hialeah.
According to investigators, the victim parked his car and Salgado initially drove off. Moments later, however, Salgado allegedly came back to the Walmart parking lot and stopped behind the victim’s vehicle, preventing him from leaving. The victim was inside the car at the time with his “visibly” pregnant girlfriend and a child, police said.
During the May 23 encounter, Salgado allegedly placed his hands behind his back and “repeatedly” challenged the victim to punch him in the face. When the victim refused, Salgado struck him, officers wrote in the affidavit.
The confrontation then turned into a fight. Police said Salgado lifted the victim by the waist and slammed him headfirst onto the pavement. The man suffered a large cut to his head and ear. Both the victim and Salgado remained at the scene after the incident.
At the hospital, doctors performed emergency surgery on the victim to address bleeding on the brain, according to police. He also sustained multiple fractures to his vertebrae, ribs and sternum, and authorities said he may require an additional operation to repair his spine.
Investigators later identified Salgado as the “primary aggressor” in the Hialeah Walmart parking lot altercation and arrested him on Monday.
He remains in the Miami-Dade County Jail on a $15,000 bond. His next court date was not immediately listed.
The post Man parking at Walmart with ‘visibly’ pregnant girlfriend and son gets thrown headfirst onto pavement and suffers brain bleed in random road rage attack: Cops first appeared on Law & Crime.
