Man dies after fight starts at casino

Tuesday, June 21, 2005 | 9:11 a.m.

DAVIE, Fla. -- An altercation in a casino parking lot escalated into road rage and ended with a man killed in a hit-and-run accident, officials said.

Julio Cesar Roqueta Reyes, 24, of Miami, died early Sunday morning when he was knocked into traffic and struck by a vehicle at a Davie intersection, police spokesman Bill Bamford said.

Roqueta became involved in a heated dispute around 4 a.m. with another man over cars in the parking lot of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, police said.

Both men got in their own vehicles and continued hurling insults at each other as they drove north toward Davie. At an intersection both men got out of their cars and began fighting. Roqueta was punched in the face, knocking him into northbound traffic, Bamford said.

"This kid hit Roqueta right in the mouth," said Davie Police Lt. Bill Bamford. "He lost his balance, fell backwards, and the car hit him in the headlight area. It was just bad timing."

Police said Roqueta was killed instantly, and the driver of the vehicle that stuck him never stopped.

Bamford said the man who punched Roqueta fled, too, but was soon apprehended. Police did not release his identity Sunday night. It was not known if he would be charged with a crime, Bamford said.

Family and friends said Roqueta was obsessed with technology and engineering. He and friends formed a team to compete on the television show BattleBots, which features remote-controlled robots battling each other.

Roqueta was the driver of their creation, called Rammstein.