Metro family defends actions in Savannah melée

ATLANTA — New developments have surfaced in the case of a metro Atlanta family who said they were attacked in Savannah.

Police have released surveillance video that shows some of the chaos that took place Mother’s Day weekend.

When Channel 2 Action News first published the story, it went viral and left some people questioning the Forsyth family members’ that they were randomly attacked.

Channel 2’s John Backman sat down with the family again and this time, with the surveillance video.

Rob Gray said when he and his family were walking on River street, a man walked through the family looking for a fight.

"He's actually threatening me at this point," Gray said as he was looking at the video. “He was the aggressor in the whole thing.”

The video shows a man in a yellow shirt trying to get a man in a red shirt to keep walking.  It also shows Gray stepping outside of the crowd. Gray said he was telling the men to keep walking.

Bachman asked Gray how he would respond to someone asking why he and his family didn’t just walk away.

"I don't know. I was trying to diffuse the situation, he was still upset with me," Gray said.

But Gray’s brother-in-law Jim Thomas disagrees.

"I don't know if he was upset with you, he was just upset. We were the target for whatever he was upset about," Thomas said.

The video clearly shows the man in the red shirt running back toward Gray and in the top right-hand part of the screen you can see fists flying.

Savannah's police department spokesman released a statement asking for information on the other people involved in the altercation. But it also calls into question Thomas' claim that his daughter was hit.

"You don't see me get punched in this video, my daughter was right next to me the entire time," Thomas said.

The police statement goes on to say that preliminary investigations show this was not a random act.

"I can't tell people what to think. I know what the truth is in this video, truth of what happened. We didn't encourage this to come towards us," Thomas said.

Savannah police chief issued a statement saying:

"We certainly understand the frustration of a family who came to Savannah for an enjoyable weekend and ended up with injuries from an unpleasant situation."

WSBTV