A 51-year-old Fort Lauderdale man is facing multiple charges after police say he attacked an officer inside the waiting room of Broward Health Medical Center over the weekend, leaving both men injured.
Ronald Jeffery Johnson was arrested Saturday, August 29, after hospital staff asked an off-duty Fort Lauderdale police officer working a security detail at the hospital to respond to a disturbance in the waiting room, according to an arrest report cited by Local10 and wesetthestandards.com. The officer, in full uniform, found Johnson yelling at medical staff from across the registration desk, a scene police said was “creating fear” among other patients in the room.
When the officer tried to intervene, Johnson told him, “I want to fight you,” then charged at him, police said. A physical struggle followed as officers tried to take Johnson into custody. In his own account of the arrest, the officer wrote that he “physically subdued” Johnson’s “intentional, aggressive and violent behavior” before getting him restrained.
Both men came away from the struggle hurt. The officer suffered a cut to his left hand that required multiple stitches, according to the report. Johnson sustained facial injuries during the altercation and was treated at the hospital before being booked into the Broward County jail. His booking photo, first circulated by Yahoo News Canada, shows a blood-streaked face with heavy bruising and a mark turning purple beneath one eye, along with visible swelling on that side of his face.
Johnson faces charges of aggravated battery on a first responder, resisting an officer with violence, assault on an officer, firefighter or emergency medical technician, and disorderly conduct. He remained in custody as of this week with bond set at $8,500, according to jail records cited by Local10.
Court records reviewed by wesetthestandards.com show Johnson also has an outstanding warrant out of Georgia for terroristic threats, stemming from a 2023 case in which he allegedly threatened someone with a boat paddle at a park. Because the threat happened in front of an 8-year-old, that case included a cruelty to children charge.
Broward Health Medical Center has not issued a public statement on the incident, and the Fort Lauderdale Police Department has not released additional details beyond the arrest report. It is not yet clear whether Johnson has entered a plea or retained an attorney.
Sources: Local10, Yahoo News Canada, We Set The Standards
