Key Takeaways
- Texas man Daniel Ramirez, 47, was arrested at the Port of Miami days after viral surveillance footage allegedly showed him shoving a Hard Rock Cafe bartender to the ground, but he insists the encounter was an accident and says, “We ran into each other. I never hit her.”
- The bartender says Ramirez first entered an employee-only area and ate garnish fruit, responded with misogynistic remarks when confronted, then returned about 30 minutes later to shove her twice, leaving her with a concussion, bruising, and a broken tooth that needed emergency dental work.
- Identified after creator TizzyEnt amplified the footage online, Ramirez posted bond after a court appearance, while the bartender says she’s too scared to go back to work but feels relief that he was quickly apprehended by Miami detectives.
A Texas man accused of attacking a bartender inside Miami’s Hard Rock Cafe has been arrested after police found him preparing to leave on a cruise—though he now insists the violent encounter caught on surveillance video was an accident.
Daniel Ramirez, 47, was taken into custody on Friday, July 31, at the Royal Caribbean terminal at the Port of Miami, nearly a week after footage of the July 26 incident began circulating online.
Ramirez, who lives in Lubbock, appeared before a Miami-Dade judge on Saturday, August 1, and posted bond later that day. He was released early Sunday morning, August 2, and immediately denied intentionally hurting the bartender.
“We ran into each other. I never hit her,” he told Local 10 News outside the jail. When reporter Linnie Supall pointed out that video appeared to show him shoving the woman down, Ramirez replied, “No, I never did. We ran into each other. It was an accident.” He said he planned to return to Texas.
Police located Ramirez after days of searching for the man seen in surveillance footage from the Hard Rock Cafe at Bayside Marketplace, a heavily trafficked waterfront entertainment complex in downtown Miami.
Authorities said the video showed Ramirez forcefully knocking the bartender to the ground. The employee, who has not been publicly named, told local reporters that she suffered a concussion, bruising, and a broken tooth during two separate confrontations. She also said the attack left her too frightened to return to work.
The arrest report provided another disturbing detail about what reportedly happened before the violence. The bartender said Ramirez entered an employee-only area and began eating fruit reserved for drink garnishes.
When she told him to stop, he allegedly responded, “B*tch, what do you want me to do, spit it out?” Ramirez then complained to her manager, allegedly declaring that no woman could tell him what to do and demanding that the employee be disciplined.
According to police, the manager instructed the bartender to pretend she was being reprimanded.
The bartender said Ramirez approached her again roughly 30 minutes later and shoved her with both hands, sending her backward into a rack. After no one stopped him from leaving, she followed and attempted to photograph his face.
She alleged that Ramirez turned around, knocked the phone from her hand, and shoved her down a second time. The impact caused her to lose consciousness and damaged her tooth, requiring emergency dental work. Footage of the first confrontation went viral after creator Michael McWhorter, known online as TizzyEnt, asked his followers to help identify the man.
The bartender credited Miami detectives with finding Ramirez quickly and said his arrest brought some relief after a frightening week. “I’m really thankful that he was apprehended and arrested and that he’s sitting there thinking about his actions,” she said.
She also rejected his characterization of the encounter, adding, “It was very, very disgusting, and I wonder how he would feel if it was done to someone in his family.”
