A New York man is charged with homicide after he allegedly pushed an 80-year-old man to the floor over a face mask dispute, reports WABC.
Donald Lewinski, 65, is charged with criminally negligent homicide in the death of Rocco Sapienza, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn announced Tuesday.
Sapienza, 80, reportedly called Lewinski out over the fact he was not wearing a mask while taking buckets of beer to a band playing outside at a bar in West Seneca. At one point, he got up and confronted Lewinski. Lewinski stood up and pushed Sapienza "hard" with both hands, according to Flynn.
"He was pretty much in an unresponsive condition right away," Flynn said. "He went into a seizure right away there on the floor of the bar."
The preliminary autopsy results showed Sapienza died of blunt force trauma to the head.
Lewinski, who left the scene quickly, plans to plead not guilty.
"It's certainly a tragedy that Mr. Sapienza passed away," attorney Barry Covert said. "My client and his family want to express their best wishes and sympathy to the family of Mr. Sapienza."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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