A 98-year-old Miami man who turns 99 later this month was arrested Thursday and charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon after allegedly stabbing his caregiver — a woman he has known for 42 years — inside an apartment in the 200 block of Southwest 18th Court.
Juan Perez was booked into Miami-Dade jail and expected to appear in bond court on Friday. His caregiver, who is also his in-law, was found bleeding profusely, given first aid at the scene, and rushed to Mercy Hospital. Her current condition has not been disclosed.
Three kitchen knives were recovered from the bushes outside the apartment building.
According to NBC 6, the accounts diverge sharply. The arrest report said the caregiver told investigators she was at the home to help her mother-in-law when Perez poked her in the back while holding a knife, then swung it at her, striking her left forearm. A physical struggle followed before a neighbor stepped in and called the police.
Perez offered a different version. He told investigators that a verbal argument escalated, the caregiver grabbed him, and he responded by stabbing her with a kitchen knife.
Both accounts agree on one thing: a blade was used, and a woman who came to help a family member ended up in the hospital.
There's no political angle here. No policy failure to dissect. No institution to hold accountable. This is a domestic dispute between in-laws who have known each other for more than four decades, and it ended with a near-centenarian in a jail cell and a woman bleeding on the floor of an apartment.
What makes it worth noting — beyond the sheer improbability of a 98-year-old facing aggravated battery charges — is what it says about the invisible strain that runs through caregiving arrangements across the country.
Millions of Americans rely on family members, often in-laws, to provide daily care for aging relatives.
These arrangements are held together by obligation, love, proximity, and sometimes not much else. When they fracture, the consequences can be sudden and violent.
None of that excuses what allegedly happened. A woman showed up to care for her mother-in-law and was left in an ambulance. If the facts hold, a man nearly a century old picked up a kitchen knife and used it on a member of his own family.
Perez faces the charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. His bond court appearance was scheduled for Friday. Given his age, the legal proceedings will likely draw attention — both for the novelty and for the practical questions that come with prosecuting someone who is, by any measure, in the final chapter of his life.
The caregiver's name has not been released. Neither has her condition been described beyond the initial description of profuse bleeding. The neighbor who intervened and called the police remains unnamed as well.
Forty-two years of knowing someone. And this is how it arrived at the police blotter.