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COCOA, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 - Fists flew in the street, and two men duked it out on the asphalt, but it didn’t end there. One man collapsed while the other peeled out, crashing into an innocent driver.
The man in the video says other people were driving around the man lying in the street, honking and cursing, frustrated they couldn’t get through the intersection. But he says, he just wanted to help. James Smith spoke exclusively to FOX 35.
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office says a fight quickly escalated into a shooting, a crash and chase in Cocoa Tuesday night. In dashboard camera video, you see a man lying on the ground stands up trying to get help before he falls back to the ground. The driver behind them caught all this on camera and then jumped out to help.
“I looked and I could see my brother's face, so I kind of reacted like a brother would, so I hopped out of the car, tried to help this guy out,” said James Smith, of Cocoa.
The man on the ground was later identified as Anthony Evans.
“It was just big brother mode. I was like, 'Hey man, I don't know what's going on but it’s going to be okay.' I'm just like calm down. I asked him was he hurt?”
Deputies say the suspect who took off fired a shot inside the car but Smith doesn’t believe Evans was hit. He stayed with Evans until EMT’s arrived.
“I see a lot of guys that age that get lost in, I guess I don't know what you call it. Street life or whatever?" Smith said, "so instinctively it's help them first, because whether these guys know it or not, their lives matter too.”
At the end of the day, Smith doesn’t consider himself a hero and is glad no one died.
“I had to get out there. if no one else was going to get out there, I was," he said. "I do what a brother do. That's it.”
The man involved in the fight, William Mathis, later crashed his car and was caught by deputies. He’s charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and shooting inside a car.