Elderly Boca Man Attacks High School Student

John Collins, Photo Credit: Pbso

BOCA RATON, FL (Boca Post) — A 79-year-old Boca Raton man was arrested last week on 12/7/21 for getting into a physical altercation with a high school-age boy after unknowingly backing into their vehicle.

According to an arrest affidavit submitted by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, John Collins, 79, of Silver Woods Court in Boca Raton, was arrested for a Child Abuse charge.

According to the report, Collins unknowingly backed into another vehicle in the McDonald’s parking lot at 7030 Palmetto Park Road. When one of the occupants exited the vehicle in an attempt to notify Collins of what had just occurred, it is reported that Collins aggressively approached the juvenile. Collins reportedly was yelling expletives at the juvenile and assumed an aggressive fighting stance.

The juvenile then asked Collins “what are you going to do, hit me?”. Collins then approached the juvenile and delivered a close-fisted strike. The juvenile admits in the report that the punch wasn’t well placed and did not land firmly on his face; however, it did leave a read mark for deputies to observe.

The juvenile reportedly defended himself and created distance between himself and Collins. Collins then proceeded with more vulgarities towards the juvenile including calling him a “pussy”. The juvenile and his guardian were able to photograph the license plate of Collins’ white Ford truck.

PBSO deputies responded and took the Juvenile and his guardian’s statements. The juvenile victim and his guardian both conducted a photo array and positively identified Collins.

The following day, deputies made contact with Collins at his Silver Woods Court residence where they arrested him for the child abuse charge which resulted from this confrontation.

Collins was charged with:

827.03(2C) CHILD ABUSE WITHOUT GREAT BODILY

Collins was arrested and escorted to the PBSO jail where he was released a few hours later on a $3,000 bond at 12:55 pm.