An elderly man suffered a broken arm in an altercation with panhandlers at a shopping plaza in The Villages.
The man was struck by a metal cane during the attack Friday afternoon by two men who were outside Subway at Spanish Plaines Shopping Center.
The men, later identified as 52-year-old James Temple of Summerfield and 50-year-old Darrin Jermaine Jones of Ocala, were asking people for money, which raised the eyebrows of the elderly man who began recording them with his phone, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. He concluded the two men, who were accompanied by a woman, were “scamming” people and he was advising bystanders, including Publix shoppers, not to give money to the trio.
His actions apparently infuriated Temple and Jones, and he was attacked. Temple was armed with a metal cane and used it to strike the man.
In the wake of the attack, the man was loaded into an ambulance and transported to UF Health Spanish Plaines Hospital. A doctor who evaluated the man concluded that he appeared to have suffered a broken arm. The arrest report noted that the injuries the man suffered appeared to be sustained as he was defending himself. Three witnesses verified that the man had not shown “any aggression” toward his attackers.
Temple was arrested on a charge of aggravated battery and booked at the Sumter County Detention Center on $10,000 bond. Jones was arrested on a felony charge of battery on a person over the age of 65. Jones, who was previously convicted of robbery, was also jailed on $10,000 bond.