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Dashcam video showed several men and women fighting in the parking lot and blocking the exit of the drive-thru as Cpl. Lee approached.
Although the people initially appeared to stop fighting when they saw the sheriff’s department SUV approaching, they started scuffling again almost immediately.
Dashcam video showed the Cpl. Lee jumped out of his vehicle the second he arrived and tried to intervene in the melee.
None of the people fighting were small, but Cpl. Lee quickly found himself tussling with 20-year-old Dequarius Simpkins, a former defensive back for Vanguard High School’s football team.
Dashcam video showed Cpl. Lee was able to separate Simpkins and another man by tossing Simpkins to the ground, but the large former football player jumped back up and went after the other man again.
That’s when Cpl. Lee hit the remote for the back door of his SUV and released his partner, K9 Zeus.
Dashcam video showed that K9 Zeus headed directly for Simpkins, but that some of the other people who were fighting stopped and made a run for it when they saw the deputy’s dog.
One young man jumped over a fence onto a table on a patio to get away from K9 Zeus, the video showed.