An Amazon driver is charged with assaulting a St. Paul homeowner after an argument over whether a package had been delivered turned violent.

Tre’Von Marquise King, 26, of Minneapolis, was charged Monday with felony third-degree assault in connection with Saturday afternoon’s encounter in the 900 block of Randolph Avenue, which left the 51-year-old man hospitalised with a fractured skull and broken bones around his eye.

According to the criminal complaint, King told police he defended himself after the man swiped his phone from his hand. Video surveillance caught the incident and shows both men recording each other with their phones and the man trying to hit King’s phone from his hand. The man then “advanced” toward King, who punched his face with his right fist and then left fist, the complaint states.

Police were called to the home around 1pm and found the man lying face down in the middle of the street and bleeding from his face.

The man’s wife told police they were waiting for an Amazon delivery and that her husband went outside and got into an argument with the driver, later identified as King. She said both men recorded each other on their phones before King punched her husband in the face and left.

The man told an investigator he received a notification that a package had been delivered to his back steps, but it was not there. After seeing an Amazon truck, he asked the driver about his package, but the driver was short with his words and “lacked professionalism”, the complaint states.

The man said after he leaned against the truck, the driver got out and punched him once. He said he didn’t recall anything else because he thought he lost consciousness.

King contacted his employer, who told him to return to his workplace. King was arrested Saturday at the Amazon Distribution Center in Eagan.

In an interview with an investigator, King said the man approached him and asked if he had delivered his package. King said he told him, “No,” and the man “vented about packages not being delivered” and asked to speak to his supervisor, the complaint states.

King said he told the man he wasn’t sure if his supervisor could address his frustrations since he wasn’t sure if Amazon was responsible for his delivery. The man said “some choice words,” according to King, who then returned to his truck. He said the man recorded him with his phone and blocked his truck from leaving, prompting him to then record the man.

The man “smacked” his phone from his hand, King told police, then stepped toward him and “flinched” at him, the complaint states. King said he defended himself and punched the man’s face once with a closed fist. He then left.

On Monday, King was being held at the Ramsey County jail on US$10,000 bail ahead of Tuesday’s first court appearance on the charge.

Court records show he does not have a criminal record beyond misdemeanor driving offenses.

 - TNS