A group of teens, who filmed and mocked a disabled man as he slowly drowned in a pond, would not be criminally charged as no laws were broken in recording the video, Florida Police said Thursday.
Jamel Dunn, 32, drowned in a retention pond July 9 as the teens recorded his ordeal and did not bother to help him, or call for help in Cocoa, Florida. Dunn’s body was not discovered until three days, according to Florida Today, a part of the USA Today network.
The video that police called "disturbing" surfaced online after his body was discovered, and showed him in his final moments.
"He started to struggle and scream for help and they just laughed. They didn’t call the police. They just laughed the whole time. He was just screaming ... for someone to help him," Yvonne Martinez, spokesman for the Cocoa Police Department said.
"The kids were at the park that day smoking marijuana and apparently saw him walk into the water. He walked in on his own. They were watching him," he added.
Dunn walked into the water from the west side and then struggled as he drowned as the teens watched and recorded the incident from the south side of the pond, according to the police. "They just started recording what happened and watched until he died," Martinez said. "Everybody is just horrified by this."
"Get out the water, you gonna die," one of the teens was heard yelling in the video.
"Ain’t nobody fixing to help you, you dumb," another one was heard shouting. Police said the teens warned Dunn, who walks with a cane, not to go into the muddy waters. However, no one bothered to call 911 or help when he struggled to keep his head above water.
In the video, when the man is seen trying to stay afloat, the teens continued to joke and mock him. "Oh, he just died," a teen said and the group broke into laughter.
Police were informed about the video after a family friend of Dunn saw the disturbing footage on social media. Authorities said they interviewed the teens but did not charge them as they broke no law, even though their actions had "no moral justification."
"While the incident depicted on the recording does not give rise to sufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution under Florida statutes, we can find no moral justification for either the behavior of persons heard on the recording or the deliberate decision not to render aid to Mr. Dunn," the Brevard-Seminole State Attorney’s Office said in a statement, Nbc4i.com reported.
A GoFundMe page was created by Dunn’s friends on the crowfunding website in order to raise money for his funeral.
This is obviously a very shocking and upsetting incident, and it can raise a lot of potential questions. How do we wind up with people who would do such a thing - is it just a result of callous individuals, or does this say something about the way we raise teens in the current culture of disassociation and the lust for attention from the internet? How should these individuals be charged, if charged at all - as adults, for murder, for manslaughter?
While I don't believe that the average person would do what these kids did, I think it might be warranted to suggest that obsession with social media assists in people who already have these sorts of inclinations. They should also be sent to prison, but given reformation treatment for eventual release due to their young age.
