MIAMI _ With the coronavirus pandemic melting down South Florida's economy, the Rotary Club this week planned to give away over 1,000 bags of groceries to the most impoverished neighborhood of Opa-locka.
One of the city's longest-serving churches, Mount Tabor Baptist Ministries, also happens to do a weekly food giveaway.
But what started out as a cooperative effort between the two charitable groups ended, police say, when a 70-year-old Opa-locka pastor punched a Rotary Club president during a row over delivery of the food that was supposed to feed residents in one of Miami-Dade's poorest cities.
Pastor Burnice Mikell was jailed and charged with aggravated battery on an elderly person. He's out of jail now on bond, and is also awaiting trial on an earlier domestic violence case. He is claiming self-defense.
The victim, Felipe Madrigal, 70, the president of the Rotary Club of Doral, said he was knocked out cold.
"This guy is an a--hole. I've been doing this for many, many years and I've never found somebody that came to perform aggression when I'm giving stuff to needy people," Madrigal said.
The food giveaway still happened _ but Opa-locka city officials helped move the event to nearby Sherbondy Park. More than 1,200 bags of groceries were given away to residents who pulled up in their cars, the goods placed in their trunks.
The Rotary Club of Doral, along with the Little Haiti chapter, had initially called a Mount Tabor deacon, Robert Green, to arrange the giveaway at the ministry. The church is located in The Triangle, a neighborhood notorious for crime.
On Wednesday morning, a rented truck delivered 12 pallets of everything from vegetables to milk to bread. Volunteers began unpacking the goods and putting them in bags.
Later in the day, Mikell showed up. "He came out in a rage or whatever," said Green, who had helped arrange the event with Doral Rotary. "I don't know what was wrong with him. It makes no sense."
Madrigal said Mikell began yelling at him, and was also angry because his car was on church property. Madrigal said he believed Mikell wanted "to take control" of the food.
Reached by phone, Mikell said he believed the food was a donation for the church's own giveaway, which wasn't until the following day. Tensions flared when he told the Rotary Club to put the food inside the church for storage for the next day, he said.
Mikell also claimed the Rotary Club volunteers weren't wearing proper masks and gloves.
"I didn't know who he was and he ran in my face and I hit him," Mikell said. "I thought he was fixing to hit me. I was defending myself on my property."
He added that he's been running a food giveaway in Opa-locka for 30 years. "They're trying to make it look bad, as if I'm the villain," he said when reached by phone Thursday.
Opa-locka Police Chief James Dobson, however, said witnesses told a different story.
He said the victim "put his hands up and this man hits him, knocks him out."
Madrigal said he plans to visit a hospital emergency room.
"The pain starts at the top of my head and goes down to my neck," he said. "I cannot move it to the right."
