Authorities in Florida say a group of teenagers, who laughed at, taunted
and filmed as a 32-year-old disabled man drowned in a retention pond early
July, could now face
charges.
Jamel Dunn drowned in a retention pond in the city of Cocoa, Florida on
July 9. Later, an extremely disturbing video began circulating on social media
showing the moment the man was drowning while some teenagers mocked him and
filmed. Cocoa police say they later discovered the teenagers who filmed the
video. They are aged between the ages of 14 and 18. The video was released by
the state attorney's office on Thursday. In the video, the teens can be heard
laughing at Dunn.
"F******* junkie, get out the water, you gonna die," one teen
can be heard saying.
"Ain't nobody's going to help you, you dumb b****," another
said. "You should've never got in there."
The man kept screaming for help but the teenagers refused to help or call
the police and the man eventually drowned.
“Oh, he just died,” one of them said while laughing. The group then fled
the park.
The man's badly decomposing body was found on July 12 days after his
fiancee filed a missing person's report when he did not return home. The
fiancee later discovered the video shot by the teenagers on social media and
she turned it in to police.
“That video is disturbing,” Cocoa Police Chief Mike Cantaloupe said
during a Friday press conference. “I don’t even know if I can think of words to
describe it.”
“I want to think that’s a natural instinct for any of us, that if we saw
somebody in trouble or somebody having an issue, that we would at least try to
get them help,”
At first, the State Attorney’s Office said they could not charge the
teens because there is no law in Florida for failing to call police or to act
as a “Good Samaritan”. However, Police have now found a law with which to
charge the teens. Police recommend charges under a statue that states a person
who witnesses a death must report it to a medical examiner. This charge has not
been applied to a case like this, but the State Attorney’s Office will decide
if a case will be filed.
“It’s our belief that this law has never been enforced in a scenario like
this, but we feel it could be applicable,” Cantaloupe said, adding that “what
it comes down to is it’s a moral issue.”
“There is absolutely no justification for what the teens did,” he added.
“Pursuing criminal charges is a way to hold them accountable for their own
actions.”
City mayor, Henry Parrish, said in a statement that the police department
will work with the State Attorney’s Office “to pursue the application of
criminal charges against these individuals under a little known Florida Statute
that in short requires a person to report a death (FS 406.12)". Parrish
added that “while this in no way will bring justice for what occurred, it is a
start."
A family friend said Dunn was the father of two young daughters and was
known to be giving to others, Florida Today added.
Police told the paper that Dunn arrived at the pond after an argument
with his fiancée.
“The kids were at the park that day smoking marijuana and apparently saw
him walk into the water,” Martinez told Florida Today. “He walked in on his
own. They were watching him.”
Police said Dunn went into the water willingly and that a nearby home
security camera shows him scaling a fence and intentionally entering the pond.
Dunn’s fiancée, Rondanielle Williams said “How could nothing in your
heart tell you not to do anything when someone’s crying out for help, and
you’re telling them that you’re not gonna help them?”
Source: The Blaze and NYPost
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