« I was attacked with vengeance by an evil man… »
This story is from a couple days ago but I haven’t seen anyone talk about it until today when Fox News wrote about it. Jordan Sparks says he was walking in Tucson wearing a MAGA hat when someone grabbed his hat and a bunch of his hair from behind. The person also apparently stepped on his ankle and broke it. From KVOA:
“I felt a very strong grasp on my hat. It pulled me back and grabbed a lot of hair,” Sparks said. The assailant jumped onto my ankle from behind and so not knowing my ankle was broken into four pieces, I turned around to grab and take the hat back. My hands latched onto the hat.”
According to Sparks, they both fell to the ground.
“Then I heard the words Hitler, Nazi and Trump. He was shouting things like that,” Sparks said. “He came over the top of me and over and over again, he hit me.”
People nearby rushed to Sparks aid and the person who attacked him was arrested. The KVOA story doesn’t name the attacker but Fox News does:
Bystanders and police officers were able to pull the two apart. Tucson police said it arrested Daniel Zaroes Brito, 42, on robbery charges — but additional charges could be filed…
Sparks said he had to have surgery following the incident. He said he learned a valuable lesson.
“I was attacked with vengeance by an evil man, but you know what I learned? You know what God taught me through the whole thing? How wonderful Tucson is,” he said. “There were people who pulled him off, paramedics who stayed with me there is a police officer that protected me.”
The fact that no one besides Fox News is reporting on the story makes me wonder if there’s some hole in it. If so I’m not seeing it. Fox News confirms someone was arrested for robbery, which I guess would be the hat. And the video below shows Sparks with his ankle in a cast. This certainly seems newsworthy and it’s not the first time we’ve seen bad behavior directed at people wearing these hats in public. Back in July, a teen in Texas had his hat stolen and a drink was thrown on him by a stranger upset about his politics.
Just a few weeks ago everyone wanted to talk about political violence and connect the Florida bomb-maker and the Pittsburgh shooter to the president. This incident complicates that storyline. The wrong type of person is the victim here. And, if the details are accurate, it seems the assailant may have had a political motive, but not the kind that makes news apparently. I’m not saying Jonathan Sparks deserves a banner headline or top placement but couldn’t CNN spare a few of its recently freed up Avenatti-appearance-minutes to invite him on for a segment?
Here’s the local news interview with Sparks: