Police in Florissant, Missouri, are refuting details of a Facebook post alleging a road rage assault against a man at a BP gas station this past weekend.
In an Oct. 14 post, an unnamed woman claimed she and her boyfriend were confronted during a road rage dispute in Florissant that led to her boyfriend being viciously attacked by two men, one Black and the other Latino. She shared photos from the alleged assault, showing her boyfriend’s bloodied face, along with pictures of the suspects.
Surveillance video from the incident poked massive holes in the woman’s original Facebook post claiming she and her boyfriend were victims of a road rage attack. (Facebook video screenshot)
Florissant police said they were contacted by the alleged victim and were made aware of the Facebook post, later launching an investigation into the claims. After a few days of digging and speaking with all parties involved, authorities determined the initial claims to police and in the social media post were both “misleading and inaccurate.”
Surveillance video from the incident, posted to the department’s Facebook page, proved the alleged victims were actually the aggressors in the situation. The department’s post also included a more detailed account of what went down.
The woman’s original Facebook post claimed the “suspects” approached them after her boyfriend honked at them after they cut them off in traffic. She said the men threatened to “stab and kill them” before the Black man “steadily punched by boyfriend” at least 20 times in the face as they tried to flee.
“We think he had brass knuckles or he had a knife,” she wrote.
In the Florissant police’s account of the incident, however, the man and woman are seen sparking the altercation by approaching the two men, who were driving a maroon-colored car. Authorities said the woman, who’s white, verbally threatened the men, after which her boyfriend assaulted the Latino man in the lot of a BP station.
At one point, the woman’s boyfriend brandished a knife and charged at the men, according to video surveillance. The Black man refused to back down.
“The Black male then approached the white male who was armed with a knife,” the police wrote. “The white male then retreated back to his vehicle as the female subject continued arguing with the two subjects while recording them with her cell phone.”
The men continued exchanging words as the white man got back into his car with his girlfriend. That’s when the Black man approached and assaulted the man through the driver’s side window as they zoomed out of the gas station.
The driver pulled into a Goodwill lot next to the BP gas station and called police to say he had been assaulted, authorities say.
According to police, all parties involved in the incident have been charged accordingly.
Watch more in the video below.
https://www.facebook.com/florissantpd/videos/vb.123062537750146/256851275173231/?type=2&theater