A man is speaking out after he was the victim of a brutal beatdown inside a Pompano Beach movie theater that was caught on camera.
The incident happened July 10 at the AMC Pompano Beach 18 theater at 2315 N. Federal Highway.
The 63-year-old victim, who didn't want to be identified, said he arrived with his wife for a screening of the new "Insidious" movie and had purchased seats in advance, but when he arrived, another couple was sitting in his seats.
The victim asked the man to move from the seats, but he said he didn't budge.
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"This guy just kept staring at me instead of getting up," the victim told NBC6 on Friday. "I said to the people at this point, who didn't apologize or say thank you, I said 'you guys can just keep the seats.' As I'm walking away, he said 'go run to your wife little boy.' So I turned around and I said 'you know I'm not the one who's being a little boy, you took my seats and you didn't apologize or you didn't say thank you and I let you keep them.'"
That's when the victim said the man became hostile and attacked him.
"He jumped up, he wanted to fight me, he backed me up, I fell over the stairs and as soon as I fell down the stairs, it was like a boxer being against the ropes, this guy just went to town on me," the victim said.
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Surveillance footage released by the Broward Sheriff's Office on Thursday showed the moment the verbal altercation became physical, with the man repeatedly punching the victim in the face until he was pulled away.
The victim said witnesses and his wife tried to stop the man, but everything happened so quick.
"I couldn't even get a defensive shot in," he said. "It happened so fast, he basically sucker-punched me is what he did."
The man and the woman he was with left the theater. Authorities are still searching for the man.
The 63-year-old, who is a disabled veteran, suffered a broken nose and had to get stitches at a local hospital.
"I didnt think anybody would be stupid enough to actually start a fight like that in the movies," the victim said.
