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Charges dropped against neighbor of victim in fatal Lake County shooting

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — All of the charges have been dropped against the alleged attempted-murder suspect Lake County deputies said they were hunting when they killed an innocent man instead.

A Lake County deputy shot and killed Andrew Scott in July, but his neighbor, Jonathan Brown, is the man deputies said they were actually looking for, and he was charged with attempted murder.

Wednesday, Brown and his lawyer told Channel 9 charges against him were inflated to justify the aggressive actions at his apartment complex that led to Scott being killed.

"I'm not an attempted murderer. I was just trying to break a fight up," said Brown.

The charges were later downgraded and Wednesday a judge dismissed them, citing witness interviews that refute police accusations.

"The justice system really did work. I hate that I was involved in it, but the end result is the correct result," said Brown.

The whole thing started when Brown was involved in a scuffle outside a home in Leesburg.

A witness told Leesburg police that during the fight Brown raised up a cinderblock in a threatening way, but Brown says he was only moving it out of the way, and in sworn testimony, people involved in the fight agreed that he wasn't using it as a weapon.

Lake County deputies investigating the fight showed up at Brown's apartment complex, but instead of going to Brown's door they went to Scott's.

Scott answered the door with a gun and was shot and killed by a deputy.

"That's just bad police work. That's all that boils down to," said Brown.

The dismissal of the Leesburg Police Department's charges against Jonathan Brown does not impact the situation involving Scott in any way.

A Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation cleared the deputy who shot Scott, but his family said it plans to sue the Sheriff's Office.