{"id":396961,"date":"2026-09-11T15:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T15:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/396961\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T15:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T15:10:17","slug":"man-in-viral-mcdonalds-beating-video-i-wasnt-going-there-to-provoke-a-bunch-of-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/396961\/","title":{"rendered":"Man in viral McDonald\u2019s beating video: \u2018I wasn\u2019t going there to provoke a bunch of kids\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">DANIA BEACH, Fla.  \u2014 The man at the center of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2026\/09\/03\/witnesses-provide-additional-insight-into-fight-between-middle-school-kids-adult-outside-dania-beach-mcdonalds\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2026\/09\/03\/witnesses-provide-additional-insight-into-fight-between-middle-school-kids-adult-outside-dania-beach-mcdonalds\/\">a viral video in which he appeared to be jumped by a group of middle schoolers<\/a> is speaking about the incident. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">It was on Aug. 21 when Moses Mercea was filmed fighting back against a group of kids outside a Dania Beach McDonald\u2019s. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The principal of nearby Olsen Middle School said the fight took place after school and off campus, and that the school was cooperating with law enforcement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Deputies with the Broward Sheriff\u2019s Office said when they arrived at the scene, the man was gone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Local 10 News reporter Rosh Lowe caught up with Mercea in Hallandale Beach. He\u2019s 45 years old and homeless. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Lowe asked if there was anything racial that was said that spurred the attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cNot that I remember,\u201d Mercea said. \u201cMaybe I used \u2018twerps.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He said it all began when he was cut off by a kid on a bike before he went inside the McDonald\u2019s to get his food.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">According to BSO, Moses started the incident by threatening the kids. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI was really trying to just stay on my feet,\u201d Mercea said. \u201cSeveral times I wanted to run away, but I didn\u2019t want to get tripped and get hit by a car, so I said, let me just turn around and face these people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">When asked what he said to the kids, Mercea said he yelled when he got cut off while walking, but wasn\u2019t trying to provoke a fight. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI wasn\u2019t going there to provoke a bunch of kids,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Moses said he doesn\u2019t want to press charges for the ensuing attack and just wants this to go away.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DANIA BEACH, Fla. \u2014 The man at the center of a viral video in which he appeared to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-396961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}