Orange County District Attorney\'s Offic Avery Robinson's mugshot.
Avery Desmond-Edwinn Robinson is accused of being the aggressor in the Disneyland brawl that went viral in July 2019. Robinson, 35, is a resident of Las Vegas. Robinson is alleged to have attacked his girlfriend, sister and brother-in-law, as well as endangered four children, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement on July 23. The brawl occurred on July 6.
The Anaheim Police Department told Heavy.com on July 10 that investigators had referred the case to the Orange County District Attorney’s office. Sgt. Daron Wyatt said, “The case has been presented to prosecutors for review.” Sgt. Wyatt told Heavy that it is up to their department to present the evidence to the prosecutors to see if felony charges were warranted.
Sgt. Wyatt added that the Anaheim Police Department is responsible for policing Disneyland in California.
The four-minute-long video became a viral sensation on July 8 as it showed what police told Heavy was a family brawling. It begins with a man yelling at a woman who then spits in his face. That man then starts punching as other family members become involved. A crowd gathers as the brawl continues. The fighting family had children with them in the park. The pink-shirted man can be heard repeatedly yelling that he was “ready to go to jail tonight.”
The statement announcing Robinson’s arrest says that he in addition to assault and endangerment, Robinson is accused of “threatening to kill members of his family as he drove out of a Disneyland parking structure. He is also accused of assaulting a Disneyland employee with his vehicle after the family was escorted out of the park by Disneyland security.” The original version of the video has been view 2.6 million times.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. The Anaheim Police Had Earlier Said That No Charges Had Been Filed Because Both Sides Were Uncoperative
On July 8, the Anaheim Police Department said that they had been made aware that the video of the brawl had gone viral. In a tweet, the department said that although their officers had responded to the scene, no charges were filed because, “All parties were from the same family and were uncooperative.” The message concluded, “Now that we have video, the investigation can continue.”
Screengrab via Inman Entertainment YouTube
When one person wrote back to the Anaheim PD to say it was “a joke” that no charges could be filed considering how many witnesses there were, the department responded saying, “Not a joke. There has to be an investigation. The parties involved all denied anything occurred and we were not there to witness it. The videos that were not available at the moment make things clear and the case has been presented to prosecutors.” In another message, the Anaheim PD said that all of the members of the Robinson family denied that the brawl had ever occurred.
2. Robinson’s Sister, Andrea, & Her Husband Damon, Are Facing Charges Too
The Orange County District’s Attorney’s Office has said that Robinson’s sister, Andrea, and her husband, Damon Petrie, both of Compton, are also facing charges. Andrea is accused of four counts of battery and one count of assault. While her husband is accused of one misdemeanor count of battery. If found guilty, Andrea could face two and a half years in prison while her husband could face six months. Damon Petrie is accused of punching Robinson’s girlfriend during the melee.
3. Robinson Could Face Up to 7 Years in Prison
Screengrab via Inman Entertainment YouTube
According to the Orange County DA’s office, Robinson could face up to seven years and four months in state prison in California if he is found guilty on all charges. At the time of writing, Robinson is being held at Orange County Jail. Robinson is facing one felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury and one felony count of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury on a woman with whom he was in a dating relationship. In addition, he is facing one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon and two felony counts of criminal threats. He is also facing five misdemeanor counts of battery and four misdemeanor counts of child abuse and endangerment.
In a statement announcing the charges being brought in the case, the Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said, “The Orange County District Attorney’s Office does not tolerate domestic violence or child endangerment anywhere.” The case is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Nevers of the Family Protection Unit.
4. Robinson Made References to a ‘Southern California Gang,’ Officials Said
The statement from the Orange County’s DA’s office says that Robinson “referenced a Southern California gang” during the viral video. Robinson’s was arraigned in court Fullerton on July 23. In allegedly threatening to kill his family members, the DA’s office says that Robinson was “simulating a gun” while looking at Damon Petrie and Andrea Robinson.
5. One of Those Who Broke Up the Brawl Told Laura Ingraham: ‘I Just Felt I Had to Get in There’
In a July 10 interview on Fox News’ “The Laura Ingraham Show,” one of those who intervened in the melee, Jason Blair, said, “I saw those kids there. I just felt I had to get in there and break everything up.” Blair, a high school football coach from El Paso, Texas, said, “My instinct was that [the fight] shouldn’t happen, and something needed to take place.” Blair remarked, like many had on the comments section of the original YouTube upload, that he felt it took park security too long to get to the scene of the brawl.
While another man who intervened, Matt Granado of Atwater, California, told the Merced Sun-Star about why he got involved saying, “There’s kids around, there’s family around, and I believe nobody should ever put their hands on a woman. I was brought up that way. It had to be stopped. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t thinking a whole lot. I just had to stop it.”
Granado went on to say that he was nervous as in the video he is wearing Buhach Colony High School gear. Granado, a baseball and football coach at the school, was worried that his presence in the video might have hurt the school’s sports programs. The school’s head football coach, Kevin Navarra, told the Sun-Star that Granado did not need to worry saying, “The first thing I told him is he did nothing bad… We as coaches try to emphasize to our players about being young men and being good citizens. The first thing I noticed watching the video was how many people were standing around not doing anything. Then Matt comes in and he’s not being aggressive. He’s trying to defuse the situation.” The article concludes with Granado expressing how uncomfortable he was with being referred to as a hero, simply saying, “We’ve got to help each other.”
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