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Miami Beach Man Charged in Surfside Antisemitic Assault

Authorities say recorded video and links to an earlier vandalism case support bias-enhanced charges and will shape the criminal case.

Overview

  • Police say a man visiting from New York and his wife were confronted on Harding Avenue and that the suspect hurled antisemitic insults before striking the husband and threatening to kill him.
  • The victim’s wife captured part of the encounter on her cellphone and investigators cite that footage along with witness accounts in their inquiry.
  • Officers located and arrested 35-year-old Jorden Stephen Perozo at his workplace on Wednesday without incident and booked him on bias-enhanced charges.
  • Perozo was charged with battery with prejudice and harassing or intimidating someone because of religious or ethnic heritage and is being held on $6,000 bond at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
  • Investigators note a June arrest tying Perozo to damage of a large inflatable FIFA soccer ball in Miami Beach, a prior link that prosecutors say may show a pattern and that community leaders have raised as a concern.