ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — When three Florida teenagers stole a car, crashed it into a cemetery pond and then drowned, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri talked about his frustration, about lives “needlessly lost,” and how the vehicle became a death chamber for the three girls.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — When three Florida teenagers stole a car, crashed it into a cemetery pond and then drowned, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri talked about his frustration, about lives “needlessly lost,” and how the vehicle became a death chamber for the three girls.
Now, nearly a month after the tragedy, Gualtieri is angrily defending his agency against accusations that his officers didn’t do enough to rescue the girls as the car sank in 15 feet of water. Bloggers, some TV stations and comedian D.L. Hughley have posted about the March 30 incident that claimed the lives of two 15-year-olds and a 16-year-old from St. Petersburg.
“Police caught on tape watching girls die. They didn’t even try to help. Just watched. Sickening,” Hughley wrote Friday morning on Facebook.
The posted dashcam video, which Gualtieri said was a “misleadingly” edited version of the original, shows the scene and includes audio of some of the officers. One deputy comments that he thinks he hears screams coming from the car and another says, “They are done. They are sig-7 dude.” Signal 7 is law enforcement code to indicate a fatality. Later Friday, Gualtieri posted a different dashcam video from a second cruiser showing two officers walking by with clothes in hand. Gualtieri said that deputies waded into the water and tried to save the girls — and that the video proves it.
“Unfortunately, there’s a false narrative that’s being spread by people on social media,” he said. “We’re in a society today that if it’s not on video, then it didn’t happen.”
On one of many videos reviewed by the Associated Press on Friday, a camera captures a police cruiser driving to the pond, behind several other police cars. It parks, and a deputy in a black shirt walks in front of the camera, holding clothing in his hand. Seconds later, another deputy, in a tank top and holding a uniform, walks in front of the cruiser.
Officials say those two deputies attempted to enter the water but retreated due to safety concerns.