Top Story - May: Longboat Key police seek information from fracas at Trump protest

Earlier this year, the Longboat Key Police Department sought the public's help to identify someone they called a “person of interest” in an investigation of a reported battery that occurred during a political protest.

The incident took place around 5:15 p.m. on May 14 outside of the Longboat Key Club at the 200 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive. Other protests have taken place at the site, which is near the home of U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan.

According to the police report, witnesses said the woman, seen in a cell-phone photo released by police, and a man battered a female protester.

The protest was “staged at the last moment for a political cause” concerning President Donald Trump and health care, the police report states.

Witnesses said the man and woman sought by police approached protesters at the corner of GMD and Longboat Club Road from the parking lot of the Chart House restaurant.

When the woman entered into a conversation with one witness, the victim began recording the man and woman with her phone, which “apparently angered them, causing the situation to intensify,” the report states.

According to witnesses, the man and woman took the victim’s phone and threw it,  and the man grabbed the victim during the altercation, the report reads.

Witnesses described the man as 6-feet-tall, and “clean cut” with “short, well kept hair.”

One witness reported that the man and woman might have left the scene in a red truck, which was heading southbound on Gulf of Mexico Drive.

“The victim did not complain of injuries and refused medical assistance,” the report said.