Pinellas County, Florida — A sheriff in Florida is fighting back against allegations that his deputies allowed three teenagers to drown when they crashed a stolen car into a pond after fleeing from authorities last month.
Reports surfaced that Pinellas County sheriff's deputies stood by and watched as the girls, two 15-year-olds and a 16-year-old, drowned. Video of the incident went viral.
"I thought I heard yelling as it was going down but now they're done," one of the officers says in the video.
At an unrelated press conference on Friday, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri fought back against the allegations, which he called "nonsense" and "a bunch of junk," saying 15 deputies were on the scene, including a dive team.
"Unfortunately, some media outlets only played one portion of one video of one deputy who happened to be on a perimeter -- it was very misleading," he said. As evidence, he pointed to other released footage that showed deputies walking around the scene without their gun belts or some of their clothing on.
"Facebook's blowing up with it, saying that I lied and we're not telling the truth about the deputies that went in," he said.
"You've got video (released to the media) that shows those same deputies walking around without their gun belts on, without their clothes on, and deputies don't just take their clothes off for any reason in the middle of the night, at 4 o'clock in the morning. They took their clothes off because they went in the water trying to rescue those girls."
Deputies attempted to enter the murky pond water but determined it was unsafe, according to the sheriff. The dive team on the scene reported zero visibility in the water and deputies reported it was so muddy they sunk down.
"Those deputies went in that water (and) tried to save those girls at their own peril," he said. "But when they go into that water and it's all sludge and they're up to their knees and they get tangled in weeds and everything else, they don't need to die over it."
Authorities identified the girls as 16-year-old Dominique Battle, 15-year-old Ashaunti N. Butler and 15-year-old Laniya D. Miller.
The trio stole a car from Damian Marriott, 35, after he left them in the running car after agreeing to give them a ride, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
On March 31, an officer attempted to pull the car over because its headlights weren't on. When the deputy turned on emergency lights, the vehicle fled. The deputy decided not to pursue the vehicle.
Another deputy who spotted the car confirmed it had been stolen out of St. Petersburg and watched from a distance as it entered Royal Palm Cemetery. It went to the back of the cemetery and into a pond.
Between them, the girls had seven arrests for stealing cars in the last year, Gualtieri.
"That's the problem we need to focus on -- this isn't a problem with the Sheriff's Office, this isn't a problem with police," he said. "This is a problem with those kids engaging in criminal conduct, running from the police. The police tried to go in the water and save their lives and they couldn't do it."
Cox Media Group
