A Barefoot Bay man is accused of robbing and beating a man at the Comfort Suites Hotel in Palm Bay.
Police met with the victim, who was staying at the hotel for the past several days. He told officers that he invited a female friend, using the name April Norris, to the room where they socialized for a few hours before falling asleep.
Sometime during the night, the victim woke up to two men knocking on his door. The victim also noticed that April Norris was no longer in the room.
Upon opening the door, two men forced their way into the room and immediately beat the victim in the face and kicked him several times in the head.
“The suspects then began rummaging through the room looking for valuables,” the officer said.
The suspects stole a cell phone, cash, medication, a wallet and fled the scene in a gray-colored Toyota Corolla. Surveillance video captured the suspects arriving at the hotel in the vehicle. A license plate from the state of Washington was resting inside the vehicle against the rear windshield. Officers said they also identified April Norris as a passenger in the car.
The victim was bleeding profusely from the face and was transported to the Palm Bay Community Hospital. He sustained a fractured jaw as a result of the beating.
A video showed the two suspects forcing entry into the hotel room and leaving with cash and other items.
One of the suspects was wearing a baseball cap with the logo “Garrard’s Bait & Tackle” and wearing black & white shoes. A bulletin of the suspects and the vehicle description was sent to local law enforcement agencies.
Soon after, the vehicle was seen by a Brevard County Sheriff’s deputy in Micco. The license plate matched the one in the surveillance video. The driver was identified as Bradford Clifford Courson of Barefoot Bay.
Courson, 36, was charged with Aggravated Battery, Driving While License Suspended, Fleeing & Eluding, Resisting Arrest, and Robbery Home Invasion.
He was transported to the Brevard County Jail, where he is currently being held on a $92,000 bond.
The other suspect has not been identified at this time.