The argument started at Chick-fil-A in late morning Saturday. It escalated on Boulder Rock Drive, where the occupant of a pick-up truck threw a coffee cup at 37-year-old Donavan Matthews in his SUV. Matthews then allegedly rammed the other car from behind on Palm Coast Parkway.
Occupants of the two cars pulled up behind Walgreens and got into a physical fight, drawing public attention and numerous calls to 911, before one of the occupants of the pick-up truck took out a rifle. When it was all over, Matthews was at the Flagler County jail, facing three felonies and two misdemeanors. The two occupants of the other vehicle were not arrested.
It isn’t clear what triggered the incident at Chick-fil-A. A man and a woman were in the white pick-up truck. Matthews was in a black SUV. According to the couple in the truck, Matthews was yelling and cursing at them all the way from Chick-fil-A to Boulder Rock Drive, where one of the SUV’s occupants threw the coffee cup toward Matthews and drove away. The coffee was cold, but it spilled inside Matthews’s vehicle, upsetting him.
Matthews “aggressively followed them and then slammed into the back of their truck causing them to jolt forward,” Matthews’s arrest report states. The drivers pulled into the side street near Walgreens and got out. The woman in the white truck said she and the driver got out to check if there was any damage to their vehicle.
Matthews allegedly approached them and started arguing verbally before he attempted to strike the man with a closed fist. The two men scuffled, tumbling to the ground, where Matthews allegedly got on top of the other man and repeatedly struck him with a closed first.
The woman retrieved an unloaded rifle from the white truck. She told authorities she did not point the weapon at Matthews but was holding it in her hand while kicking and punching him, to get him off of the other man. The fight, witnessed by several people, soon broke up.
One of the witnesses saw the two vehicles going west on Palm Coast Parkway when the black SUV rammed the white truck. That witness saw both vehicles take the side street by Walgreen and the two drivers jumping out and getting into a fight, before the woman grabbed the rifle. Another witnessed described the scene similarly. Authorities also secured surveillance video from Walgreens.
Matthews was charged with three counts of battery, two of them third-degree felonies, a count of felony criminal mischief causing more than $1,000 in damage, and a count of assault. He was booked at the county jail on $33,000 bond. He remained at the jail this morning.
Jay Tomm says
TF is wrong with these people?? Society is doomed.
Sam says
How stupid can you be. A true idiot for sure.
Richard Smith says
This is what Palm Coast is coming to. Nice…
Wow says
Just another day in Paradise.
nomorepitbulls says
Matthews was in a black SUV. According to the couple in the truck, Matthews was yelling and cursing at them all the way from Chick-fil-A to Boulder Rock Drive, where one of the SUV’s occupants threw the coffee cup toward Matthews and drove away. The coffee was cold, but it spilled inside Matthews’s vehicle, upsetting him.
So Matthews was IN the SUV…but then “one of the SUV’s occupants threw the coffee cup towards Matthews”…
ONE of Matthews’ own passengers threw coffee at him?
This makes no sense other than lousy editing/proofreading.
Willy Jones says
Typical “Bubba” bullshit! What an asshole.
JimboXYZ says
From the traffic incident report involving a collision, it would be nice to know who the driver (the one that took a beating over this incident) & his female occupant are of record. I don’t want to be around any of these “village idiots”.
Jimmy says
Caused by overcrowding,overpopulation.
Bee says
Something is weird about this story. The guy who gets a thing/object thrown inside of his car gets arrested??? The culprits not only jump him they have an exposed firearm. Ok, please tell me who in this town do the male and female “victims” know? At a minimum everyone should have been charged on the scene. Never fails in Palm Coast, the ones with the biggest mouths, poking out their chest are the first one to call 911 when it really gets physical.
Atwp says
Palm Coast getting worse!
Disgusted in Flagler County says
Why wasn’t the person arrested for throwing the coffee cup at Matthew’s?
Take a good look says
All parties are culpable here and should have all been arrested only because the occupants of the white truck did not use restraint in avoiding an escalation of the situation. They were ALL in the wrong in the first place. I understand a person’s the right to defend themselves, however, the proper thing would be to just ignore the lunatics behavior and drive away and report it to the police before it hit out of hand. Each party made a choice to assault the other.
Who designs these places? says
The asinine design of that Chick Fil-A parking lot brings out the best in all of us. Hey I know, Lets cram in a few more speed bumps, weird unnecessary curbage design, a bank Kiosk, employees with iPads in traffic wandering about taking orders and a pass throughway shortcut to other businesses along Palm Coast Parkway, all inside a half acre parcel. Palm Coast Urban planning at its finest, really, their best work since they approved that dogleg entrance in front of Brass Tap/Metro Diner at Island Walk Publix plaza. Idiots.
Shark says
Welcome to new york !!!!
Carmen A Seidel says
This is what happens when you keep building homes in Palm Coast. 95 does go both ways!!! Moved here 20 years ago from NYC to get away from all the stupidity only to have it follow us. I think NYC sounds alot better now!
J Pack says
Over Chicken !?!
The dude says
Once again… the depravity of the locals makes national headlines…
JimboXYZ says
Moral of the story is don’t ram another and create that traffic collision on he roads around the rest of the masses. That and don’t beat up the other guy over a cup of coffee. Just shut up and take that level of abuse. Someone needs to come clean on what caused the coffee to be thrown in the 1st place. Was it taking to long get a Chick-Fil-A meal ? I still have trouble reconciling the wonman drawing the unloaded rifle from that vehicle. She was kicking & punching the other person while the 2 dudes were ground & pound MMA/UFC ? Her life was never in jeopardy. Inloaded rifle, she is very fortunate that the other person wasn’t CCWP and drew a truly loaded firearm. She might be dead for that ? I think all of them needed some level of arrest for what any of them were involved in as an escalation. Obviously a woman capable of kicking & punching in a 2 vs 1, also having a rifle, even if it wasn’t loaded, becomes a club to beat another with. So that is assault with a deadly weapon, intent to use it ? Then it becomes a Stand Your Ground defense. Would she be considered a good Samaritan ? If her BF or husband or whatever he was to her were winning the fight, would she have intervened in behalf of the guy that rammed their truck ? I doubt she would ? There’s escalating & defusing a situation, At least 2 individuals needed to be arrested for this. For all intents & purposes the altercation had escalated to arrests & charges of disorderly conduct.
Bee says
Blame the City of Palm Coast for that one! They blocked every move Chick FiL-A tried to make.
Sgt. Sidanko says
Chit-a-Fil…….. It draws flies from all Northern states,
dave says
All of the parties should be arrested and placed in the Green Roof Inn. This is just an example of what our country has come to where ‘Stupidity equals Violence’. Until our court system start doing its job, byt not letting these punks get away with anything, with that famous slap on the wrist or picking up trash on the side of the road, it will only get worse.
Laurel says
Chick fil a no less. Could have been a filet O fish.
Laurel says
How about another 100K people?
No one says
You got that right they need to take their nasty attitude back to their home state.
Robert Joseph Fortier says
Are you telling us that throwing coffee is now a crime? Assault? It probably is nowadays, thanks to the weakening of society. Maybe some should be happy they are alive and spend some of that energy (rage) on helping people out, rather then being a jerk
Robert Joseph Fortier says
People in Palm Coast laughed at me when I told them, after searching around Palm Coast, that I chose to build a house in the Mondex, two totally different worlds.
So while I sit on my deck looking out at a couple acres of green grass, tons of beautiful trees, and my shooting range…I am happy to say I made the best choice. Why would one move to getaway from New York, just to end up in another New York with a better climate?
Robert Joseph Fortier says
Yup…
melly says
Do tell, what moves? I love Chick-Fil-A but I avoid the PC location like the plague, that parking lot is a joke. What did the city deny them?