It’s sad how life doesn’t give you a heads-up before dumping bad news on you. A seemingly peaceful day can take a turn for the worse in the blink of an eye.
This was the case of 87-year-old Dean William Zook on Wednesday, 28th of June. He had only meant to enjoy a pleasant dinner with his wife, but an unfortunate turn of events led to his eventual death.
According to reports, the incident occurred at the Glenview County Club in The Villages. The suspect, 76-year-old Robert Moore Jr., attacked the victim in the Golf Course parking lot over a slight misunderstanding.
Witnesses say the victim accidentally hit a car, a black Lexus that looked like Moore’s. Moore immediately approached him shouting, “What the hell, you hit my car.”
The victim was quick to admit to hitting the car and offered to swap insurance information and fix the damage. However, that wasn’t good enough for Moore. He needed more from the victim before he could be pacified.
Moore resorted to aggression and proceeded to strike Zook multiple times. All the victim’s attempts to protect himself from Moore’s blows failed, leaving Zook with multiple injuries. Moore soon left the scene after realizing the car in question wasn’t his.
But it was already too late. The damage had already been done. Zook started slurring and staggering while trying to recount the event to deputies.
The cops called for medical assistance for the man. He was rushed to the local hospital, where it was discovered that the blows had caused a bleeding in his brain. The doctors tried what they could to keep him alive, but they could only do so much.
Sadly, Zook eventually passed away on the 16th of June, a little over two weeks after the altercation. Zook was going to be 88 on the 17th of July. It was a sad moment for his friends and family.
A thorough investigation involving several interviews, scraping surveillance cameras, and tracking credit cards produced evidence pointing to Moore. But the cherry on the cake was a picture of Robert wearing the same cloth and sunglasses he wore on the day of the incident.
His picture appeared in a news article where he was seen scoring a hole-in-one. Exactly as he was when seen on the surveillance tapes. Seemed like it was karma hard at work.
Moore was taken into custody on the 26th of July. During the questioning, he admitted to hitting Zook several times but claimed to have been oblivious to his age.
According to Moore, Zook put his hands on him first, and Moore only struck the victim after he refused to take his hands off him. He also claimed not to have fled but instead was waiting on the porch of the country club when the victim’s wife stated she was calling the cops.
Moore was charged with one count of aggravated manslaughter of an elderly person and placed on bond of $30,000.
