His family said a woman confronted Rodriguez after he reportedly bumped into a little girl who was with her. Rodriguez was then struck from behind, and "as he fell on the ground, he blacked out," Sheriff's Det. Matt Luna said.
Misbel Borjas, who lives near Rodriguez, was passing by in a car when she saw him walking and trying to pass a woman and a girl. Then, Borjas said, she saw the woman push Rodriguez and start to hit him with a block of cement.
"She was yelling at him, 'Go back to your country,' or 'Go back to Mexico,'" Borjas recalled. "It was racist."
But authorities said that through their investigation, "detectives have discovered that this is not a hate-related incident."