Ross Allen Johnson. (Mugshot: Bay County Jail)
An amateur mixed martial artist allegedly killed an Air Force airman in a fight outside a Florida bar. Police claim that the defendant Ross Allen Johnson, 23, told shifting stories about what precisely happened when he encountered the victim, identified by the U.S. Air Force as airman Dayvon Larry, 31. The charge against Johnson is manslaughter.
Johnson and friends were at the Coyote Ugly bar in Panama City on Sunday night when a fight broke out between the two groups, a police affidavit states.
Surveillance footage showed Johnson at the outdoor patio before the incident, police said. A woman appeared to alert him, and he jumped over the patio fence toward a brawl between his friend and an unknown man. On the way there, he allegedly punched Larry behind the left ear. Then he reached the friend’s fight, where he punched the unknown man multiple times, pushed him to the ground, and hit him more, officers said.
Johnson allegedly told police about being an amateur MMA fighter with a record of five wins and two losses, and he had approximately three years of what cops described as “advanced fighter training.”
Officers claim, however, that he changed his story of the incident multiple times — shifting in how he punched (or pushed) the victim, and how he exited the bar. He also claimed to have grappled with, not struck, the unknown man.
“The defendant joined in the altercation striking the unknown male multiple times with a closed left fist,” police said. They claimed he did not provide aid to Larry. “The defendant fled the scene by Uber Rideshare back to a nearby hotel.”
Johnson was found at the Case Loma Hotel, officers said. Post-Miranda, he said he and his friends got into a fight with unknown men at the bar.
“The defendant claimed he was in fear of the victim, DL, and was defending himself and friend due to the victim, DL, running toward the altercation yelling ‘hey,”” police wrote.
Johnson allegedly asserted he kept heading toward his friend’s fight in order to break it up.
“There he grabbed the unknown male in a ‘shoulder-neck hold’ and removed the male from the situation by turning him over to his group of friends,” police wrote.
But officers said Johnson kept leaving out facts, such as his messaging a woman about the incident.
“Dude is still not moving,” he allegedly wrote.
One of his friends said in a recorded statement that after the altercation wrapped up, Johnson told him, “Man, I hit that guy. I laid him out, and I think I killed him.”
Johnson allegedly said he returned to his hotel, a Holiday Inn Resort, to change clothes, but when he saw police outside, he left for a different hotel to stay with women he met.
According to police, Larry’s autopsy showed he died of blunt force trauma to the head. He had a softball-sized hematoma behind his left ear and a three-inch fracture on his skull.
Larry was stationed at Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City.
“Tyndall Officials can confirm that there was an airman death that occurred on April 10, 2023,” they said in a statement to Law&Crime. “This is a devastating loss for Tyndall. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, friends, and fellow airmen.”
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