A 21-year-old Amazon driver has been arrested after attacking a 67-year-old woman on Thursday. The attack came following a dispute over a delivery in Castro Valley, California.
Itzel Ramirez was the driver who engaged in an aggravated verbal exchange with the victim before punching the woman on the face and the back of her head. The encounter was caught on camera from multiple angles. The New York Post reports that Ramirez verbally ‘berated’ the woman about her “white privilege” before attacking her. The Alameda County Sheriff’s Department said that the victim suffered visible injuries and a possible broken nose.
Doug Smith, owner of the Vista Creek Apartments where the incident occurred, said, “It was frightening to see an Amazon driver do that, somebody who we allow on the property to provide us a service.” He also said that the fight began when the victim received an alert that an Amazon package for her had arrived. There was no package when she went to the lobby to find it, so she asked Ramirez about the package since she was standing in the lobby. This verbal exchange quickly escalated into a violent confrontation.
Ramirez was arrested and is being held on $100,000 bail and will be arraigned Monday on two counts of elder abuse and battery involving serious injury. Amazon put out a statement saying, “This (incident) does not reflect the high standards we have for drivers who deliver our packages. We take these matters seriously and this individual is no longer delivering Amazon packages.”