A group of Florida teenagers who recorded a man drowning on cellphones and laughed about it rather than calling for help could face charges, according the police chief in Cocoa, Fla.
The five teenagers, aged 14 to 16, can be heard laughing as they record more than two minutes of the man struggling to stay afloat in a pond near his family’s home.
The boys can be heard taunting the man, saying that he was “going to die.”
“Ain’t nobody going to help you, you dumb bitch. You shouldn’t have got in there,” one of the boys says.
When the victim, Jamal Dunn, slips beneath the water, a voice can be heard saying “he dead” and there is laughing.
Teen who suggests calling police is dismissed
One of the teens then suggested calling police but was dismissed by his friends.
The video of the drowning, shared online by the teens, has stirred outrage among viewers.
On Friday, the office of State Attorney Phil Archer issued a statement saying that charges were unlikely.
“We were asked to make a preliminary review of the video regarding any potential charges for failure to provide aid,” the state attorney’s office said. “Unfortunately, there is currently no statute in Florida law that compels an individual to render, request or seek aid for a person in distress. We are, however, continuing to research whether any other statute may apply to the facts of this case.”
Later in the day Cocoa Police Chief Michael Cantaloupe said he will recommend the state attorney prosecute the teens under a statute that requires a person with knowledge of a death to notify a medical examiner.
Dunn’s family filed a missing person’s report on July 12, three days after the drowning. His body was recovered from the water on July 14.
Teens interviewed by police
The teens were interviewed by police after Dunn’s sister called police attention to the video.
Cocoa Police Department spokeswoman Yvonne Martinez expressed disgust at their behaviour, saying not all the teens showed remorse at their actions.
As juveniles, they cannot be named.
“I’ve been doing this a long time, probably 20 years or more … I was horrified. My jaw dropped,” Martinez told CNN.
