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A teenager is being charged as an adult after he allegedly waved a gun on a Florida beach filled with spring breakers and then stood off with deputies who chased him into the Atlantic.
The incident in New Smyrna Beach, a city on Central Florida’s Atlantic coast, happened Thursday afternoon when deputies patrolling the beach, populated with festive spring breakers, came across a fistfight, body camera footage showed.
A crowd formed, and from it appeared to emerge a person waving a gun, the footage released by the Volusia Sheriff’s Office showed. “He’s got a gun,” people in the crowd shouted.
The teen ran from deputies, who ordered him to drop the firearm, and ended up in the ocean steps away, the video showed.
Deputies trained their handguns on the suspect, who also had a bag in hand, before he was persuaded to drop his gun, raise his hands and come to dry sand to surrender peacefully, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
The recovered bag contained 20 smaller bags of cannabis, it said.
The time between deputies’ first confrontation with the suspect on the sand and his surrender was about 5 minutes, the sheriff’s office said.
The suspect was identified on Friday by R.J. Larizza, state prosecutor for the region, as a 16-year-old boy. Larizza said adult charges have been filed against the teenager, though he didn’t specify which ones.
NBC News is not naming the teen because he is a minor.
The Volusia Sheriff’s Office said the boy was arrested and booked on suspicion of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, possession of a firearm by a person under 18, improper exhibition of a firearm, commission of a second-degree felony with a weapon, resisting a law enforcement officer, tampering with evidence and possession of marijuana for sale.
The office also said he has seven active warrants from Orange County, Florida, based on allegations that include robbery with a firearm and violation of probation.
It’s not clear if the suspect has retained counsel. The state Office of the Public Defender for the region did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Larizza said he has ordered the suspect transferred from the custody of state juvenile authorities to the Volusia County Jail.
“This 16-year-old brought drugs and a gun to Volusia County during spring break,” Larizza said in a statement. “He will now face adult charges and serious consequences for his reckless actions. We welcome spring breakers, so long as they behave themselves.”
