This is my opinion on what happened the night/day of the altercation.
1. Hank Jr/ Hank Sr/ Lisa C recieved a call from M saying that she didn't want to remain with Ron and to come and get her. She needed back-up (IMO)
That's why 3 people came together. I'll give you 2 senarios, you see which one makes more sense.
A. Daughter calls and says "Hey, I'm ready to leave R, will you come and get me? That would only take 1 person, a driver of a vehicle. No implied violence.
B. Daughter calls up crying and screaming/upset she needs help getting away from R. Come and get her right away. Implied threat of violence or actual violence. This senario would have 2 or more people arriving as to help fend off the "attack". It seems there was a perception of violence already occuring as well as threats of MORE violence should rescuers (other than LE) show up.
2.After M tells R that her family is on thier way there he starts to threaten her more, her family with bodily harm, possible threats with a fire arm. He may have made these threats before to M, M's family members, most certainly made threats about abductor and use of a fire arm. I've know a lot of people who have made these kinds of threats and for the most part people believe them or at least give them the benefit of the doubt, since one never truely knows what another might do. So...
3. M calls fam back to say "Do NOT COME! Don't come here, stay home, it's not worth getting you or me shot over. or beaten, or whatever else. In other words; I'm not really going to leave him, or if I do, I'll be back soon.
Fam decides they have had enough of this BS and they are going to go and collect M, if she wants to go back later, then they will deal with that then. For now, just get her out of harm's way. In this respect she is NOT lying. She DID tell her family NOT TO COME. However, if I recieved this call from my daughter I would certainly go anyway, most probably calling LE on the way over. But that is just me and I have no fear of LE. Others do and I've seen it over and over again. Refusal to involve LE because it's being a "rat" or drug use by one party or other, if not both, or upsetting the daughter/victim causing broken family ties in future. ect ect. ect. Just remember if you pi$$ off your son-in-law, it's pretty likey you won't get to enjoy a close relationship with your grandchild(ren), present or future. Possibly not ever get to see them at all.
4. Fam arrives to M insisting that she is NOT leaving R! She wants them to leave and NOT call LE on her behalf. They can not abide by R's & M's demands
on keeping silent. They try to cajole M into going with them. Pleading with her while threatening R if he tries to hurt her or stop them. She gets defensive over "her man" and starts to fight with fam members. R shoves Hank Jr. (This is the assault charge, he struck first. In the state of FL there are no such a thing as "fighting words". No matter what anyone says to you, or even screams at you, you are not allowed to hit them for ANY REASON!) Hank is ready to defend himself, he's been ready since the calls started that day.
5. GGS comes outside, gets involved in the scuffle. Notice she didn't call LE. Why not? If my grandson or son's in laws were at my house and remained after they had been asked by thier OWN family member to leave, I would threaten calling LE. If they still didn't leave, I would let them explain it all to the officer. Why didn't GGS do so? Hmmmm? Makes one wonder. I often wonder what people are up to when they are afraid to call LE to thier home even when warranted. GGS involves herself in the altercation by shoving people into the van without injury or incident to herself, yet M is struck more than once in this same fray.
Also how did M know who hit her if it happened in the fight? It could have been either participant of the fray. Fists move fast, if 2 or more people are throwing punches, any one of them could have accidentally hit M. Quite possible that all three could have struck her.(Personally, that's why I don't jump into fights for men. Let them take care of themselves.) My question is this, did she get hit in 1st altercation or 2nd? If the 2nd, was she inside the van or outside? I believe if it happened at all, it happened during the 1st fight.
6. When fam starts to leave, Hank Jr shouts to R something that makes him lose it. "Don't kill M like you did Haleigh" or "Better hope M doesn't disappear" or some other inflamitory remark. R runs out and starts attacking Hank Jr inside of the van. Once able to leave the scene, they head for the 1st phone available.
Also I would like to mention that it is very typical for a neck injury to present it's self days after the injury happens. I too had a whiplash in 1986. I felt perfectly fine for 3 days. On the morning of the 3rd day I felt literally paralized. I had to have help to romove myself from the bed. It tooks months (6-8) to recover and was no joke or laughing matter. Nor was it some scheme to get money since whiplash only nets about $10,000. at most. Usually the policy cap amount, with most of going to Drs and medical bills.