Stranger strokes child’s head in Walmart out of ‘sexual frustration,’ Florida cops say
When a man was charged with attacking a health care worker in a hospital on New Year’s Day, deputies learned he had also battered a child just days earlier as she shopped in Walmart with her mom, Florida officials said.
Deputies responded to reports of a violent man in a Palm Coast hospital on Jan. 1 when 64-year-old Robert Elliot Goldstein walked into a restricted section of the hospital, according to a Jan. 3 news release from the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.
A medical professional asked Goldstein to go back into the emergency department, the sheriff’s office said, when he “grabbed her and pinned her against the wall.”
The sheriff’s office said Goldstein continued to “get physical” with staff members before deputies arrived.
Goldstein was charged with assault and taken into custody, the sheriff’s office said.
After Goldstein was booked into Flagler County jail, an analyst from the sheriff’s office noticed he bared a striking resemblance to a man accused of battering a child earlier in the week, according to the sheriff’s office.
On Dec. 28, a stranger later identified as the 64-year-old approached an 11-year-old girl in a Palm Coast Walmart while she was out shopping with her mother, the sheriff’s office said.
He reached out and started to stroke the child’s head, then ran his hands down her shoulders, deputies said.
The girl “stared at him in shock,” the sheriff’s office said, and then the man ran out of the store holding a plastic bag with jeans.
“CCTV footage from Walmart captured the man exiting the store and this image was shared widely on social media, but no one identified the man as Goldstein until he arrived at (the jail),” the sheriff’s office said.
On top of the assault charge, Goldstein faces an additional charge of battery on a child, according to the sheriff’s office.
When asked why he approached the child, Goldstein told deputies it was out of “sexual frustration,” the sheriff’s office said.
Goldstein had no prior criminal history and was not on a sex offender registry.
“This is a textbook example of how sex offenders escalate and become much more serious offenders,” Sheriff Rick Staly said in the release. “This is likely not his first offense, so we’re asking anyone in the community to contact us with information on any prior interactions with him.”
The sheriff said anyone with information should call 386-313-4911 or email tips@flagersheriff.com.
Palm Coast is about 60 miles south of Jacksonville.
This story was originally published January 3, 2024 at 11:41 AM with the headline "Stranger strokes child’s head in Walmart out of ‘sexual frustration,’ Florida cops say."
