A 29-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly punching a customer at random at a Walmart in Lauderdale Lakes, police said.
A man in his 80s was leaving the store at 3001 N. State Road 7 shortly before 10 a.m. Oct. 11 when he was punched twice by a man as he walked out of the store’s automatic doors with his head down. The Broward Sheriff’s Office released video of the attack late last month, attempting to identify the attacker.
The attacker was identified as Joseph McFadden, the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Tuesday. Sunrise Police arrested McFadden on a warrant on Friday, and he was being held in the North Broward Bureau on one count of aggravated battery on a person 65 years or older as of Tuesday afternoon.
The victim, who had minor injuries, did not know McFadden, and McFadden did not steal any of the victim’s belongings after the attack, the Sheriff’s Office said.
The Sheriff’s Office did not release additional details Tuesday.
McFadden in 2018 was arrested on a domestic-violence related charge, battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence, Broward County court records show. He was found to be incompetent due to mental illness, and the case was transferred to the felony mental health division.
The domestic violence charge was dropped, and McFadden was placed on probation, which ended in September 2021, court records show.
