Inset: Brian Papula (Broward County Jail). Background: Cooper”s Hawk Winery and Restaurant in Coconut Creek, Florida, where Papula allegedly hit a pregnant woman with his car (Google Maps).
A Florida man was arrested after he allegedly hit a pregnant woman with his car during a dispute over a parking spot.
The incident occurred on Oct. 3 in the parking lot of Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant in Coconut Creek, which is about 15 miles northwest of Fort Lauderdale. According to a probable cause arrest affidavit, the woman said she was leaving the restaurant and had to carry some items from inside to her car. Her husband apparently went to fetch the car so he could move to a parking spot in front of the building.
The woman was standing in the spot when the defendant, identified as 45-year-old Brian Papula, pulled up in his car, the affidavit said. The victim reportedly told Papula that she was saving the spot for her husband, but Papula allegedly shook his head and proceeded to pull forward. The car struck her knee, which forced her to move back and lose her shoe, cops allege.
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“She stated if she did not move, she would have been run over,” the affidavit said.
Paramedics responded to the scene, but she did not need to go to the hospital.
Papula told cops he moved forward “at a slow speed.” When the victim told him she was saving a spot he replied “you can’t save spots,” the affidavit said. After parking his vehicle he walked into the restaurant. He denied hitting the woman with his car and said he was “in a rush.”
“At the distance the victim was standing, it was clear she was pregnant,” cops wrote. “The defendant willingly and and intentionally used his vehicle to move the victim out of the way, striking her knee to gain entry to the spot.”
Deputies with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office arrested Papula on one count of aggravated battery on a pregnant person. He was taken to the Broward County Jail where he has since posted a $5,000 bond. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
