New York man gets punched in the face for looking exactly like actor Shia LaBeouf

Mario Licato, a 26 year old art director who bears an uncanny resemblance to actor Shia LaBeouf was assaulted by a stranger on his way to a Piano show in Manhattan. According to Mario, while he was walking up the steps at a train station on Delancey Street, he ran into a man who punched him in the face before saying  'This is because you look like Shia LaBeouf!' Knocked unconscious, Licato fell to the bottom of the stairs.

I was just walking up the stairs Mario Licato said to Gothamist.

“I just see his fist coming towards me. It knocked me, and while I was falling down the stairs, all I hear was, ‘This is because you look exactly like Shia LaBeouf!”

I had my head down, there were people in front of me just to make sure I wasn't going to fall. I didn't even see the guy. I just see his fist coming towards me."

Licato says he lost consciousness when he landed at the foot of the stairs. When he was revived, he noticed his face was covered in blood, his glasses broken in half. A near by couple rushed to his aid after the assault.

The couple, according to Licato, described the attacker as in his mid-20s, 6 foot to 6-foot-3, and muscular, like a frat boy.

"I was so confused. I was even more confused because I got up and I was like, am I crazy or did I hear him say, "This is because you look like Shia LaBeouf?" And [the couple] were like, "Nope. That's exactly what he said as he was running away from you."

“I wanna know what Shia LaBeouf did to [him],” Licato later said. “What did Shia LaBeouf do to him that he punched somebody that looks like him? He must have did something so mean. Did he steal his girlfriend? Did he just see his last performance art piece?”

The police eventually arrived on the scene and said the punch was a misdemeanor assault.

Licato later posted pictures of his black eye and bandaged forehead on instagram, where he remarked that this was not the first time he was thought to be LaBeouf, though it had never resulted in violence before. The caption read,

"I wanna thank the guy who randomly decided he needed to hit me last night. 'this happened bc you look exactly like Shia labeouf'. Well sir you boosted my self esteem bc he's [pretty] hot."