Joseph Max Fucheck Florida realtor filmed spewing racial vitriol and pointing gun at Dwayne Wynn Miami man after accused black man of stealing from his own mailbox.
A white Florida realtor captured on video pointing a gun at a black homeowner and accusing him of stealing a flyer from his own mailbox along with unleashing a litany of racial slurs has been charged with aggravated assault and hate crime.
Joseph Max Fucheck, 58, made racist remarks to Dwayne Wynn, as he accused the victim of not living at the Miami-area home, in which he told Wynn, ‘this is why you people get shot’.
He now faces felony charges of aggravated assault with a firearm with prejudice and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced Tuesday.
Prosecutors also elected to charge Fucheck under the state’s hate crime law.
‘It is sad that racism can turn the most mundane act into a confrontation with potentially violent overtones,’ Fernandez Rundle said in a statement.
Targeted because he was black
Wynn was speaking with a neighbor outside his home on June 14 when Fucheck drove by in an SUV, placed a flyer in the victim’s mailbox and drove away, investigators said.
Wynn walked across the street to see what’d been left in his mailbox. The card was for Fucheck’s real estate business and read ‘We Buy Houses…CASH!’ and ‘We Buy Houses… FAST!’
He then walked back across the street to speak with his neighbor.
Soon afterwards, Fucheck drove back down the street, exited the SUV and began yelling obscenities at Wynn.
Fucheck accused Wynn of stealing the card, despite his insistence that it was his home and his own mailbox.
Officials said that Fucheck then pulled out a handgun and demanded the card back.
Wynn began to record the encounter with his cellphone camera.
In the video, Fucheck can be seen charging at the ‘black man’ while slurring his words and claiming he carries a gun because he is both a 35-year veteran of the U.S. Navy Seals and was “the head of the SWAT team in Hillsborough County.” A statement that has yet to be corroborated.
‘That’s not your property motherf*****! I saw you! I was down the street watching you! I saw you take that out of there. You’re just a motherf****** nosy neighbor! Give me my card, that’s my property!”
Fucheck continued to wave the gun: ‘Damn right I carry a motherf****** gun.’
He continued to accuse Wynn of not owning his property.
Fucheck can be heard on the video using racist slurs and claiming ‘this is why you people get shot’ before eventually driving away, authorities said.
Prosecutors said the ‘disturbing’ incident was witnessed by a number of people, including children.
This afternoon @MiamiDadePD & @fdlepio charged 58-yr-old Joseph Max Fucheck w/Aggravated Assault w/a Firearm w/Prejudice & Possession of a Firearm by Convicted Felon, both 2nd Degree Felonies, for accosting, threatening, & hurling racial slurs at a black homeowner on his property pic.twitter.com/R5Xp6F68vO
— Kathy Rundle (@KathyFndzRundle) June 30, 2020
Assault predicated on the fact that victim was black
‘After speaking with all the involved witnesses and reviewing the evidence, we are alleging that but for the fact that Mr. Wynn is a black male, the entire incident would not have occurred,’ the state attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement the Miami Herald reported.
‘It is sad that racism can turn the most mundane act into a confrontation with potentially violent overtones,’ Rundle said in a statement.
‘All Mr. Wynn wanted to do was go into his mailbox for his mail. Suddenly, as the video shows, Mr. Fucheck accosted him with a barrage of ugly statements and racial slurs.
‘This incident was about much, much more than the obnoxious behavior of an irate man arming himself and screaming at someone he did not know and had no reason to fear. With this arrest, we are alleging today that the incident was about hate and intimidation, pure and simple.’
‘There is no place in our diverse County for hate and the violence that too often spawns from it,’ Miami-Dade Police Department Director Alfredo Ramirez said in the statement.
Fucheck, 58, could face 30 years in prison if convicted of the assault and weapons charges.
Previous brushes with the law
The arrest is not Fucheck’s first brush with the law, with the former navy seal having prior criminal convictions for grand theft, exploiting the elderly and obstruction of justice.
He also has been accused of stalking twice and ordered to stay away from his ex-wife’s new husband, and accused of ‘psychotic behavior and repeated aggression,’ according to one petition.
