Video shows NC man choking woman with shoelace at Miami airport bus stop, police say
Police arrested a Charlotte-area man who they say appears in a video trying to strangle a woman with a shoelace at a bus stop at Miami International Airport last weekend.
In the graphic video, the man stands near the woman and appears to fumble with his shoelaces. The woman is seated and talking on her phone.
The man goes behind the woman, puts the shoelace around her neck and tries to choke her, the video shows.
The victim fights back and ends up on the ground. She kicks the man as he repeatedly punches her, according to the video.
As the 26-year-old woman tried to defend herself, her assailant “beat her repeatedly” with “a closed fist” on the face and upper body, The Miami Herald reported, citing a police news release and an arrest affidavit.
Police said a “good Samaritan” intervened and stopped the attack, the Herald reported.
The suspect, identified by police as 27-year-old Aaron Quiñones, is scheduled to appear in a Miami-Dade courtroom on Monday, the Herald reported. He remained in jail on a $250,000 bail, according to the newspaper.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue treated the woman at the scene, the Herald reported. Police found and arrested Quiñones several blocks away, according to the newspaper.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police arrested Quiñones on a charge of assault on a female in January 2020, according to a police report obtained by The Charlotte Observer on Friday.
His 25-year-old girlfriend at the time told police that Quiñones hit her in a home on Briarhill Drive, according to the report. Briarhill Drive is in east Charlotte off Milton Road, which leads to W.T. Harris Boulevard.
The Observer was unable to determine the status of the Charlotte case on Friday. Mecklenburg County court records show no pending action against him.
Jail records show Quiñones lived in Charlotte at the time of the charge. Public records also list addresses for him in Concord and Waxhaw.
Miami police said Quiñones was homeless and living in Miami when he was charged in the bus stop attack.
Quiñones didn’t return a phone message left by the Observer on Friday morning.
Airport fliers use the bus stop to get to their rental cars, police said in a news release, the Herald reported.
The woman in the video did everything right to save her life, a former Miami-Dade police officer told television station WPLG.
“You can’t grab a shoelace, but she sat back. That caused the guy to go to the side, which now she’s able to start using her hands,” Freddy Trillo, who’s now a martial arts instructor, told the station. “She was using her legs to keep the distance management. Keep him at bay long enough for a civilian to come up and help stop it.”
Officers were looking for the “good Samaritan” and any other witnesses, according to the Herald.
Police urged anyone with information in the case, or who may have been victimized by Quiñones, to call the Miami-Dade Police Department’s Airport District at 305-867-7373 or CrimeStoppers at 866-471-8477.
Charlotte Observer staff writer Michael Gordon contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 8, 2022 at 12:37 PM.