Police release images of spring breakers who drugged, gang raped girl
Police release images of spring breakers who drugged, gang raped girl
A sheriff’s department in Florida has released a video showing spring break revelers milling about on a beach not 10 feet from where an unconscious 19-year-old girl was being gang raped by a group of men.
The brief cellphone clip came to light as deputies continued searching for two additional suspects in the March attack in Panama City Beach that was witnessed by hundreds of people who failed to intervene.
So far, authorities have arrested a pair of students from Alabama’s Troy University who were allegedly seen in a cellphone video recorded last month sexually assaulting a 19-year-old girl in Panama city Beach.
Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen described the graphic video as the ‘most disgusting, sickening thing’ he had ever seen likened the scene to ‘wild animals preying on a carcass laying in the woods’. He said the sickening footage shows at least three men surrounding an incapacitated woman on a beach chair.
Delonte Martistee, 22, of Bainbridge, Georgia, and Ryan Calhoun, 23, of Mobile, Alabama, were charged with sexual battery for the incident believed to have occurred between March 10 and 12.
Sheriff McKeithen said the video of the attack showed hundreds of spring break revelers impassively looking on as the unconscious teenage girl was being raped by a group of men, CBS News reported.
‘People standing, almost rubbing the incapacitated girl,’ the sheriff said. ‘Standing there, more concerned about spilling their beer than they did someone being raped.
McKeithen revealed that so far, his deputies have recovered more than four recordings of the sexual assault, and he believes that are more videos out there.
The sheriff’s office released a short clip showing the crowd they said was present at the time. The recording depicts a seemingly normal day at the beach for dozens of bikini-clad spring breakers goofing off and standing around talking about Instagram.
At one point, a few people cheer, but it’s unclear why.
It is unclear from the video released what bystanders could actually see.
But Sheriff’s spokeswoman Ruth Corley said the video was released ‘to show the crowd that was surrounding the incident and to show people, not only was it a horrible event, but it was witnessed by so many people who did absolutely nothing to stop or call police.’
The alleged victim told deputies she thought she had been drugged before the incident and that she was afraid to report it because she could not remember many details, Panama City News Herald reported.
‘She knows something happened, but she doesn’t know what happened,’ the Bay County sheriff said.
Officials did not release any more information about the two other men wanted in connection with the gang rape, but they said additional arrests are expected.
