Coronavirus Confrontation On South Beach Elevator

MIAMI BEACH, FL — A coronavirus confrontation between two South Florida seniors led to the arrest of a 72-year-old Florida man who claims he was just trying to observe his condominium's social distancing rules when an 86-year-old neighbor tried to " bum-rush" his way onto a South Beach elevator.

"It's crazy," attorney Michael Grieco told Patch on behalf of his client, Nachum Gross, who was charged by Miami Beach police with assault or battery on persons 65 years of age or older stemming from Monday's incident at the upscale Portofino Towers Condominium. "The whole thing is outrageous. I just don't know how else to put it."

Surveillance video showed Gross holding up two fingers to remind the octogenarian the building had a rule of no more than two people on the elevator at any one time amid the coronavirus pandemic. Gross' wife, Sandy, was the other person on the elevator with him.

"The guy had to wait. Instead of waiting, he bum-rushed his way onto the elevator, and my guy — who is a significantly bigger guy — just tried to push him out of the way. He was like, 'You get out of here,' and the guy stumbled backwards."

Grieco, a former Miami Beach commissioner and mayoral candidate, said Gross and his wife are immunocompromised. They recognized the man who tried to get on the elevator. It was he who called police, according to Grieco.

"This guy walks around their building all the time without a mask on. My clients see him all the time violating the rules and essentially creating dangerous situations all the time," Grieco said. "They just wanted to be on the elevator without anybody else, which would be consistent with the building rules."

The elderly man who tried to enter the elevator told WPLG-TV he misinterpreted Gross' two-finger alert as the peace sign.

"I thought this was peace," he said demonstrating what he saw. "I didn't know what it meant."

Grieco said police placed handcuffs on his client and took him to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

"Every human being right now is a loaded weapon. These are scary times," Grieco told Patch. "The Miami Beach Police Department should be spending its resources out in the entertainment district, trying to stop people from shooting up the streets, and spend less time chasing down old men for getting into shoving matches in elevators."