Local businesses say fight video released by St. Augustine PD not a reflection of Downtown

St. Augustine police released a new video on their Facebook page today.

It shows a group of what appears to be younger people break out into a fight in Downtown St. Augustine.

St. Augustine Police told Action News Jax’s Courtney Cole this was an isolated incident.

Cole spoke to Dave Border, a longtime local business owner on St. George Street, where the fight broke out.

He said this incident is not a reflection of what Downtown St. Augustine is like on a day-to-day basis.

According to a St. Augustine PD Offense Report, the fight broke out after a man said some “racist stuff” to a group of Black males and “threw a drink on them.” Another witness told police the Black males were “shoving” a person, whose name is redacted, before the drink was thrown.

The police report said the altercation happened at 10:07 p.m., when most businesses along Saint George Street are usually closed.

Police need help identifying group seen fighting in downtown St. Augustine

But it was a camera on a business directly across from World of Flags that caught the altercation on video.

“Their perception is, this is how we are,  when that’s not how we are,” said Border.

Dave Border, of World of Flags on St. George Street, says his business has been on this street for nearly 40 years.

“We have good security patrols up and down here. There’s a beat cop every day, there’s bicycle police at night,” Border told Action News Jax.

While Border told Cole this has not affected his business, he hopes the release of this video doesn’t change that.

“It’s challenging enough to get people to come out in the pandemic, to venture out, to come in — much less to have that [video] and they say ‘well, I’m not going to St. Augustine,’” said Border.

St. Augustine PD tells me they’re still working to learn more, but will release more information about the incident by the end of this week.

Overall, St. Augustine PD told Cole that crime hasn’t been bad there.

However, across the board, they are seeing a rise in domestic violence incidents and burglaries, particularly cars.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) website is where you can find a breakdown of crimes for each county and municipality.

Officer Dee Brown, the Community Affairs Officer for St. Augustine PD, says stats for 2020 are expected to be posted any day now.

Until then,, we can give you a look at statistics from the year of 2019.

Last year, a majority of the crimes reported were burglary, larceny, and aggravated assault — which lines up with what officer Dee Brown told Action News Jax.

When we receive the data for crime in St. Augustine in 2020, we’ll bring it to you.

Cox Media Group