Woman accused of racist assault of Black mail carrier in Miami, police say

A woman accused of attacking a U.S. Postal service worker in Miami after she tried to strike her with her vehicle and threatened to shoot her was arrested on Tuesday, authorities said.

Lourdes Portugues, 34, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon with prejudice.

According to authorities, the postal worker, who is a Black woman, was delivering mail in Portugues’ neighborhood when Portugues’ child went to collect the mail.

An arrest report said Portugues, who is a white Latina woman, told her child, ‘“We don’t talk to [n-words].”

The postal worker responded by saying she was just delivering mail, and Portugues grabbed a hose in her front yard and sprayed the woman with water, the report said.

The victim, the report said, then called authorities, and Portugues went back to her house, grabbed her purse and went inside her SUV.

Fearing for her life, the victim crossed the street, and Portugues intentionally sped her SUV towards her, causing her to put out her arms on the SUV and move back so she wouldn’t get hit, the report said.

Portugues then reversed her SUV and tried to hit the victim again, but she ran and took cover behind a parked vehicle, the report said.

As she kept driving down the road, Portugues made a U-turn and continued to accelerate towards the victim, the report said. Portugues then parked her car, went inside her home and said she had a gun and was going to shoot the victim, the report said.

“Gets into her vehicle, she tried to run over the mail carrier not once, not twice, but three times,” said Miami Police Officer Mike Vega. “Luckily, the mail carrier was not injured, 911 was called, and we arrived at the scene.”

Portugues’ child, the report said, told officers that they saw her putting bullets in a gun while she was in her room.

Officers then entered the home, found a pellet gun and rounds, the report said.

Surveillance video in the area, the report said, corroborated the postal worker’s statements.

Portugues was then taken into custody.

During her court appearance on Wednesday, a judge set Portugues’ bond to $15,000 and ordered that she be placed on house arrest.

In a statement, the United States Postal Service said they don’t comment on ongoing investigations.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office said it will review the case to see if Portugues’ charge can be escalated to a hate crime.

Records show that Portugues had been arrested at least twice, once in 2024 for battery and once before for a drug-related charge.