JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — New details from police show an employee at Dave & Buster’s in Jacksonville was involved in a serious fight at the business on Saturday.
Police say Cordell Bentley Russell, 34, was agitated after working all day on Saturday.
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A witness told police that someone told Russell to “‘put the food right there’ in a strong tone,” the police report said.
“I’m a grown (expletive) man, don’t talk to me like that,” Russell responded, according to the police report.
Details of what happened after that are redacted from the police report. Witnesses told police the victim was foaming at the mouth and his heart stopped.
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A doctor told police at the hospital the victim in the fight had a pulse, “but that he was possibly ‘brain dead,’” the report said.
Action News Jax’s Logan MacDonald reached out to Dave & Buster’s management on Thursday and they said they’re unable to talk about the victim’s current condition.
In cases like this, if a victim dies, the charges are usually upgraded, according to Action News Jax law and safety expert Dale Carson, who has decades of law enforcement and legal experience.
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“Still looking at 15 years in custody for aggravated battery with serious injury. If he dies, it would clearly be a second degree murder charge,” Carson said.
A second-degree murder charge would also carry a 15-year maximum sentence.
Russell is in the Duval County Jail on a second-degree charge of aggravated battery. His next court date is set for Feb. 14 at 9 a.m.
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