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Police: Disabled Man Attacked In Dispute Over Handicap Parking Spot At White Castle

COLERAIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio (CBS Local) -- A disabled Ohio man who walks with a cane says he was attacked by another customer two weeks ago after a dispute over a handicapped parking space.

Todd Oehler said he stopped at a White Castle restaurant in Colerain Township on March 3 for a bite to eat when he spotted a GMC SUV park in a handicapped space with no placard.

"I'd seen a young kid and his girlfriend pulling up and was sitting there and was pursuing to get out and I said, 'Hey guys, if there's nothing wrong with you, park over there,' you know. Well, they took that as an attitude," Oehler told WLWT.

Oehler, who suffers relentless pain on his left side, said he went into the restaurant to order and the man, who appeared to be in his 20s, followed.

"I turned around and he smacked me right in the mouth and in the nose and you know got me a little bloodied up and then I fell down," Oehler said.

He said a White Castle worker called 911 as the man fled the restaurant.

"They about to fight, they about to fight Hey! Hey! They're fighting. Yeah. They're fighting," the worker is heard telling 911 dispatchers.

Oehler said doesn't know why the man got so angry.

"I thought we all (saw) eye-to-eye with handicapped people, elderly people. I thought we still had that instilled in us," Oehler said.

The suspect was described as wearing a gray sweatshirt and a black hat with a red Cincinnati symbol.

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