Police: 80-year-old stabs 70-year-old over cellphone dispute

Using a machete he keeps in a shopping cart, an 80-year-old homeless man slashed a 70-year-old man several times in the head and arms outside a Hialeah grocery store over the weekend after he said the man took his cellphone, according to police.

Guillermo Bejerano remained in jail Monday facing an attempted second-degree murder charge and a charge of aggravated battery on a person over 65.

The incident happened at 1 p.m. Sunday at 3100 W 76th St. in Hialeah.

According to Bejerano’s police report, Emerito Herrera Lopez, 70, was in the Villaverde Shopping Center when Bejerano accused him of stealing his cellphone.

A witness told police that Lopez denied having the cellphone, but Bejerano said he was going to kill him.

“The defendant walked away holding a machete screaming, ‘Mate a uno’ [I killed one],” an officer wrote in the report.

Lopez had several gashes from the machete, including one to his left cheek that required 17 stitches and one to his upper right arm that caused the humerus bone to break.

Bejerano later told police that Lopez refused to give him his phone back. When Lopez allegedly refused “he got upset and reached inside his shopping cart where he keeps a machete,” an officer wrote.

Bejerano then went into the nearby Sedano’s Supermarket and told a security guard to call police because he had killed someone, according to the report.

This story was originally published July 20, 2015 at 8:32 PM with the headline "Police: 80-year-old stabs 70-year-old over cellphone dispute."