A 19-year-old accused of hitting a police officer during a skateboard during a protest in Miami last month is facing a battery charge.
Jeffrey Rolando Lopez-Espinal was arrested Tuesday on a charge of aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer, according to an arrest report.
The report said the incident happened back on June 10, when officers responded to a group of demonstrators who were vandalizing a Christopher Columbus statue in Bayfront Park.
After officers took the people responsible into custody and tried to drive away from the area, protesters stood in front of and on top of the police vehicles, the report said.
At one point, protesters started vandalizing the police cars with skateboards, shattering one car's front windshield, the report said.
When an officer tried to take one suspect into custody, two other protesters assaulted the officer with their skateboards, the report said.
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The next day the officer started having a headache and noticed he'd been cut in the back of the head by one of the skateboards, the report said.
Police were able to identify Lopez-Espinal as a suspect from the video from the scene, the report said. Lopez-Espinal's brother and work manager were also able to identify him from photos of the incident, the report said.
According to the report, Lopez-Espinal told officers he had been protesting with other skateboarders but had left when the protests began to get violent.
Lopez-Espinal remained behind bars on $10,000 bond Wednesday, Miami-Dade jail records showed. Attorney information wasn't available.
