Elderly Filipino man brutally beaten by neighbor in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS — An elderly Filipino man was brutally beaten up allegedly by his neighbor for unknown reasons.
A tearful and bloodied Amadeo Quindara, 75, told KNTV News that he was sitting in his garage when his neighbor from two doors down first approached and threatened him and then returned to slam him to the ground and punch him repeatedly.
Quindara suffered deep cuts on his head and face and a black eye. But the emotional wound, he said, cannot be treated. “If you keep thinking about what happened, that is the thing that hurt me most,” he told the news channel.
Quindara’s home security reportedly captured the neighbor, Christian Lentz, 44, returning but did not record the physical attack on May 30.
Lentz, however, could be heard saying Quindara would ‘be on a ventilator’ and ‘die’ several times before walking away saying racial slurs like, “You should speak English. You should speak English. You Japanese.”
Police arrested Lentz, who was charged with felony residential burglary but was released shortly.
Former Clark County District Attorney, David Roger explained that Lentz avoided additional charges, including attacking a person over 60 years old, because the beating wasn’t caught on camera “and Quindara didn’t have what classifies as ‘substantial bodily harm’ under Nevada law.”
“Statute requires (police) to show either a loss of limb, loss of bodily function, or prolonged pain and suffering,” Roger said.
Current Clark County District Attorney, Steve Wolfson, filed a misdemeanor battery charge against Lentz, which Roger said “carries up to 6 months in the Clark County detention center whereas a felony would be prison time.”
“Right now the Filipino American community is being treated as if we don’t count and don’t matter,” said former labor union leader Gloria Caoile, Co-Founder of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations.
“They only locked him up for a few hours and let him go,” Quindara told KTNV.
Quindara is filing a restraining order against Lentz, who is set to be back in court on July 3.
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