Police say physical evidence inside a Margate home and surveillance footage outside supported a wounded woman’s account of an attack.
MARGATE, Fla. — A machete recovered from beneath a bed, a sheath found elsewhere in the house and surveillance footage showing an injured woman fleeing are among the pieces of evidence police cited after an alleged attack that left a woman seriously wounded while her 1-year-old daughter was nearby. Authorities arrested the woman’s brother, Ruben Altidor, 36, on Aug. 3.
The evidence described in the arrest report gives investigators several separate sources from which to reconstruct the incident: the victim’s statement, the observations of arriving officers, a relative’s identification of the alleged attacker, physical conditions inside the home and video showing part of the aftermath. None of those items alone resolves every question about what occurred. Together, however, they formed the basis of the allegations that led to Altidor being booked on attempted felony murder, aggravated child abuse and a probation or community-control violation. The case remains pending, and the charges are accusations rather than findings of guilt.
Police began documenting the scene after responding to a home near the 6900 block of Northwest Fourth Place in Margate. Officers heard a woman screaming, according to accounts of the arrest report. The woman came outside with significant injuries and told police that someone was trying to kill her. A cousin identified Altidor, the woman’s brother, as the alleged attacker. Officers arrested him at the scene, allowing investigators to secure the residence and examine the areas through which the victim had apparently moved before getting outside.
The home’s interior contained what police described as a substantial amount of blood. Investigators reported that it was visible in the victim’s bedroom and continued in a trail through the hallway, near a bathroom door and toward the exterior of the residence. The pattern was notable because it corresponded generally with the account that the attack began in the bedroom and that the injured woman then fled. Public reports, however, have not disclosed laboratory testing of the stains or a formal forensic reconstruction. The description comes from officers’ observations recorded during the early stage of the investigation.
Investigators also recovered two objects they believed were significant. A sheath for a machete was located in the kitchen, police said. A machete was later found under a bed in another bedroom. Officers described apparent red smudges on the blade or weapon. The reports reviewed do not state that DNA testing, fingerprint analysis or blood testing had been completed, nor do they disclose whether prosecutors have filed laboratory reports in court. For that reason, the recovered machete can accurately be described as the suspected weapon identified by investigators, but not as a weapon conclusively linked by publicly reported forensic testing.
The victim supplied the account of what police believe happened before she escaped. While she was being transported for medical treatment, she told an officer that she had been sleeping when Altidor began striking her with a machete, according to the arrest report. Her 1-year-old daughter was lying beside her. The woman also told police that, during the attack, Altidor asked, “Oh my God, why aren’t you dead yet?” The statement is significant because it directly describes the alleged conduct and the words the victim attributed to her brother, but it remains part of the prosecution-side account and has not been tested through trial testimony.
Doctors treated the woman for severe injuries, according to police. The arrest report described a deep wound on the back of her right thigh and serious damage to both hands, including injuries that placed several fingers at risk of amputation. News accounts have differed slightly in how they summarized the hand injuries, illustrating why the arrest report’s overall conclusion is more reliable than attempts to characterize each wound beyond what authorities recorded. What is clear from the reports is that the woman’s injuries were substantial and that she required emergency hospital treatment. No later detailed medical update was located in the material reviewed.
Outside the home, surveillance footage provided a second kind of evidence. Local 10 News reported that video captured screams and showed the wounded woman fleeing while a man police identified as Altidor followed carrying a machete. Another woman could be seen holding a young child. Police said the victim reached a neighboring residence, rang the doorbell and then collapsed. The recording reportedly captured the aftermath rather than the beginning of the alleged bedroom attack, meaning it may corroborate elements of the woman’s escape without independently showing every act described in her statement to investigators.
A neighbor also described the woman’s arrival after she left the property. He told Local 10 that she moved toward the street and then came to his front door asking for help. His account places an independent witness at the end of the escape, but there is no indication in the reporting that he saw what happened inside the bedroom. That limitation matters in describing the evidence accurately. Police possess direct statements from the victim about the alleged assault, while the neighbor and exterior surveillance footage appear to document what happened once she had already made it out of the immediate attack area.
The child’s presence adds another evidentiary and legal dimension. Investigators said the 1-year-old girl was in bed with her mother during the attack and was later found with her mother’s blood on her, although the child was not physically injured. Altidor was charged with aggravated child abuse in addition to the attempted felony murder count. The reports reviewed do not state that investigators believe the machete struck the child. Prosecutors would therefore have to show how the alleged conduct and circumstances satisfy Florida’s child-abuse law, which covers specified forms of intentional abuse and conduct that can cause qualifying injury.
The attempted felony murder allegation likewise has a specific statutory meaning under Florida law. State law addresses an intentional act committed during the perpetration or attempted perpetration of another felony when that act could cause death but does not. Jail records listed Altidor’s charge as attempted felony murder rather than using only the more general phrase attempted murder. The publicly available reports reviewed do not identify the precise underlying felony theory prosecutors plan to use or provide a later charging document setting out each element. Those details may become clearer as the criminal case moves beyond the initial arrest stage.
A third booking allegation concerns a probation or community-control violation. Law&Crime reported that the violation was connected to an aggravated battery case. The available material does not provide sufficient information to describe that earlier case beyond the booking notation, and there is no verified basis to link its facts to the Aug. 3 allegations. Under Florida procedure, an alleged violation of court supervision can create consequences separate from the prosecution of new criminal charges. Whether Altidor violated the terms of supervision is itself a matter for the court to determine.
Despite the amount of evidence described publicly, one of the most basic questions remains unanswered. Police had not announced a motive. The reports do not identify a verified dispute between the siblings shortly before the incident, and no statement from Altidor explaining or disputing the allegations was included in the material reviewed. Investigators also had not publicly described whether additional forensic testing, interviews or digital evidence changed their initial account. That leaves the arrest report as a detailed but preliminary description of the state’s case rather than a complete evidentiary record.
Reports issued after the arrest said Altidor was being held without bond at the Broward County Main Jail. No later verdict, plea or other resolution was found in the sources reviewed. As the case proceeds, the importance of the recovered weapon, surveillance footage, scene evidence and witness statements will depend on what prosecutors can authenticate and prove in court and what challenges the defense raises. Until that process is completed, the police reconstruction remains an allegation supported by evidence authorities say they collected, not a judicial determination of what occurred.
Author note: Last updated September 9, 2026.