HIALEAH, Fla. – The Marco Rubio canvasser victimized by a brutal beating is back in the hospital, according to his father.
His son was attacked because he was a Republican, police reports show.
The second suspect arrested for the attack, 27-year-old Jonathan Casanova, bonded out of a Miami-Dade County jail late Wednesday night.
With his face covered, Casanova walked to a nearby vehicle led by his wife. He refused to answer any questions as to what prompted the brutal beating.
Police initially said the attack wasn’t politically motivated, but in court it was revealed that it was Casanova and Javier Lopez who police said confronted the victim, Christopher Monzon, for passing out fliers for Rubio near East 60th Street and 1st Avenue.
Lopez was arrested at the scene while Casanova was found several days later in his car on Miami Beach.
“The statement that Casanova gave to the victim was, ‘no Republicans in Hialeah, you’ve gotta get out of here or I’m going to let my dogs out’ and he even threatened to shoot him,” said Sgt. Jose Torres with the Hialeah Police Department.
The attack left Monzon with serious injuries to his head and face.
On Thursday, his father told Local 10 News’ Roy Ramos that his son is now back in the hospital because of further complications.
If Monzon looks familiar, it is because he’s made headlines before for being tied to white nationalist groups.
Through documents obtained by Local 10 News, we learned Monzon was paid nearly $1500 dollars a week for the past eight weeks or so to canvass for Republican candidates.
Rubio came to Mozon’s defense, saying, “When a Republican volunteer is savagely beaten the traditional media treats the victim as the criminal and the criminal as a nice young man who likes fishing and just made a mistake.”
Asked about his son being tied to extremist groups, his father told Ramos that Monzon is passionate about history but that he is not a racist.
He also said regardless of what party his son supports, he should’ve never been attacked.