This summer, two families made national news when they got into hand-to-hand combat in the middle of Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland over an alleged bump in a ride queue, but new records indicated an up-and-coming Disney actor and his family appear to be among those involved in the fight at Disney World. His mother was arrested.
Elijah Richardson is a young actor from New Jersey who performed as Eli Bradley in 3 episodes of the Disney+ 2021 Marvel series, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” and in a Disney+ sequel called “Hollywood Stargirl,” released this year.
A New Jersey man who resembled Elijah Richardson was interviewed by a sheriff’s deputy after the fight ended, according to Orange County Sheriff’s body cam footage released recently by the state attorney’s office.
The man gave his birthdate as Sept. 24, 2002 — which appears to be the same birthday as Elijah — but said his name was Fuquan Grant.
The man gave his cell phone number to law enforcement in the body cam footage. When WDWNT called that number Tuesday, the man who answered said he was Elijah Richardson and then hung up when WDWNT explained it was writing a story about his family’s fight at the park and asked if Fuquan Grant was his real name and Elijah Richardson was his stage name.
The sheriff’s office was not able to provide additional information on the man’s identity.
In a 2015 Jersey Journal story, Elijah was interviewed about his rising acting career. The story mentioned the names of his parents, Tauheesha and Antuan Richardson.
Those people, Tauheesha and Antuan Richardson, appeared in sheriff’s records from the July fight.
Tauheesha, Antuan, and Fuquan Grant were all trespassed from Disney World property, in addition to several other family members on both sides of the fight. Tauheesha was one of three people arrested from the fight, although the criminal charges have since been dropped.
The body cam videos, witness interviews, and cell phone footage of the fight capture the horror and absurdity of that day. Tauheesha and her family were all at Disney World celebrating a 6-year-old’s birthday. They wore matching red Mickey shirts with Tauheesha’s identifying her as “mommy of the birthday boy,” and the man believed to be Elijah in a shirt that said the “brother of the birthday boy.”
“It’s my (expletive) son’s birthday. This shit ain’t supposed to go down like this,” Tauheesha told deputies in the Magic Kingdom after the fight, according to the body cam footage. “I’m sorry. I got to excuse my language.”
Tauheesha said later she was protecting her child, husband, and mother, which is why she jumped into the brawl.
“So why did you hit everybody else?” a deputy asked her. “Who’s everybody else I hit?” Tauheesha said. “I was fighting men… I’m a 42-year-old woman fighting men.”
In a video of the fight, Tauheesha is clearly one of the aggressors when she shoves two people. Then a man runs up to her and appears to punch her hard in the face. That intensifies the fight. Tauheesha trades blows with the other family, and one of Tauheesha’s relatives looks like she is trying to use a stroller as a weapon. Another man comes at Tauheesha and seems to be pulling her braids. That’s when the man who is believed to be Elijah runs into the fray and attempts to throw a punch but it doesn’t seem to land.
A bystander told deputies the Richardson family were the aggressors.
“There was a lot of stuff said. I couldn’t tell whose mouth it came out of. There was a lot of in your face, cursing, you name it, you stepped on me, you could hear all that,” the witness told the sheriff’s office, according to the deputy’s body cam footage. “They look like they were the ones who were there to brawl. They threw it down. There were a couple of women in there who were looking to throw haymakers.”
Many at the scene realized the fight was going to attract a lot of attention.
“We’re all going to be on TikTok tonight,” a deputy joked in the footage. He was correct.
Watch the body cam footage below.
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Disgusting behavior- so much for the magic of Disney
All that because someone stepped on your foot at a crowded park? They felt disrespected….oh well, try being an adult.
Ringing this fella and even subsequently boasting about it in a post seems unethical to be honest, and this isn’t the first time you’ve done this. You had a chance to clean up your act, and you didn’t. I’ll definitely not be returning to this site anymore because of your lack of integrity.
This is what you are taught to do as a journalist, the news you watch every day is calling people involved in stories.
You are a Disney blog, you are not a journalist, and you need to stop pretending you are. Watching body cam footage and calling the numbers given to cops is unethical. Real journalists investigate, yes. You are not a journalist. Stop with your shady activity in your quest for clicks.
What is a journalist? They have to be in a dead medium or work for an outlet with a “wider scope of coverage”? My journalism degree is as good as any, thank you.
You do understand that “real” journalists call people before running stories, right? That is the ethical thing to do. I’d be happy to share my ethics text books from college with you, I still have them.
Please tell me what you do for a living so I can tell you that you aren’t qualified to do it. The keyboard gives you a bravery you wouldn’t have otherwise, I’d remember that.
Isn’t it doxing to post someone’s phone number online?
These are public records
Calling the number was um….intrusive….
This is why millennials stopped answering their phones
you wouldn’t really text someone for a story.
People like this are absolute jokes to society…..and why the world’s going to crap….so disgusting
Thank you Tom for investigating and reporting the incident fully and with integrity, and unveiling the ugly faces of these animals for the world to see. God bless you!
I think this was good reporting on the part of WDWNT. If people can’t behave in a civilized way in a public space and create a disturbance by assault and battery then they have no right to privacy. If this guy was employed by Disney as an actor and involved in the incident then it should be addressed by Disney and is a legitimate news story.
Tom you keep up!!!!! Love know what is happening. People just dont like when they are held accountable. Big problem in America right now.
I hate bullies. How are you going to bold face lie about your identity to a police and not expect any repercussions… Disney police is so beyond crooked. They have fouled up their response to numerous cases over the years and this is just the latest example. This will only continue if the Richardson family is not held accountable.
Thanks for the update. I knew it was the Richardson family by looking at the Orange County arrest records. I wonder if Disney cleaned this up.