KISSIMME, FLORIDA — A pissed off father leveled a disabled veteran serving as the umpire for his son’s baseball game.
Video of the incident showing Jorge Ignacio Aponte-Gonzalez delivering a ferocious sucker punch on the unsuspecting sports official made national news last week.
Dad knocks out umpire at son's baseball game.#youthsports #Floridaman pic.twitter.com/3CR3CwcNsr
— IAP Radio (@inapickpod) May 8, 2023
Aponte-Gonzalez, 41, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with battery due to his violent assault on the unsuspecting umpire on April 18.
Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez claims that Aponte-Gonzalez’s son had verbally abused the umpire during the game, and that the umpire attempted to maintain control, according to the Osceola News-Gazette.
After the game, Aponte-Gonzalez walloped the umpire as he stood by the gate entrance to the field, knocking him unconscious. The Gazette reports that the umpire wants to see Aponte-Gonzalez prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
“This umpire is a 63-year-old man, a disabled military veteran who does this because he has passion for baseball and likes to give back to his community, a man who I'd met playing dominoes and it's a coincidence he's the victim in this,” Lopez said. “You can clearly see parents and players were upset by this. You don't see this very often.”
Lopez added that there have been other reports of Aponte-Gonzalez causing “disruptions, but not to this level.”
“He said he was defending his kid,” Lopez said. “That's not the way to defend your kid. There's no reason for him to be acting this way. No parent should act like this in public.”
