Gainesville Police arrested two local men Monday after they reportedly beat a man at a homeless camp for spilling a beer.
Just after 8:30 p.m., police arrested Roy James Giles, 39, and Vince Lee Pittis, 25, after receiving a phone call from UF Health Shands Hospital regarding a man in the emergency room who was badly beaten Sunday night, according to a police report.
His eyes were swollenwith bleeding in the whites of his eyes. He also had bruising on his back and a swollen hand.
The injured man told police that at about 8:30 p.m. Sunday, he was drinking beer at the Sweetwater homeless camp, located near 96 SE Williston Road, with Giles, Pittis and Pittis’ wife when he accidentally knocked Giles’ beer out of his hand, according to the report.
Giles knocked the man to the ground before he and Pittis kicked him in the head and body, rendering him unconscious, according to the report. The beating was hard enough to knock the man’s dentures out of his mouth and break them, he told police.
Officers arrested both men on charges of aggravated battery. Police took them to the Alachua County Jail where they remained as of press time in lieu of $8,000 bonds.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 3/11/2015 under the headline “Police: Man spills beer, beaten at homeless camp”]
