Two arrests have been made in the case of an incapacitated college co-ed who was gang raped on Panama City Beach, in plain view of hundreds of people who, according to local law enforcement, were “more concerned about spilling their beer than somebody being raped.”
The Panama City News Herald is reporting on the case of a woman who was gang raped on a crowded Panama City Beach in broad daylight during last month’s Spring Break.
During a press conference held Friday by the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, authorities announced that 22 year-old Delonte Martistee and 23 year-old Ryan Austin Calhoun, both students at Troy University in Alabama, have been charged in connection with a sexual battery by multiple perpetrators that occurred sometime between March 10 and 12 on Panama City Beach.
The arrests were made as a result of a video taken of the incident which took place behind the Spinnaker Beach Club where several men are seen surrounding an incapacitated young woman who was lying on a beach chair. She attempts to ward off their groping hands while the men talk among themselves, saying, “She isn’t going to know”.
Sheriff Frank McKeithen compared the scene to “wild animals preying on a carcass laying in the woods”, saying the video was the “most disgusting, sickening thing” he has ever seen.
“This is happening in broad daylight with hundreds of people seeing and hearing what is happening, and they are more concerned about spilling their beer than somebody being raped,” McKeithen said. “… This is such a traumatizing event for this girl. No one should have to fear this would happen in Panama City Beach, but it does.”
The News Herald reports that the video was obtained by Troy Police during an investigation into a shooting in the college town while searching the phone of a witness to the shooting. Had the police not been searching the phone, they never would have found out about the crime, which led officials to wonder how many more such crimes were being committed that no one reported.
As for the victim in this case, she believes she was drugged at the time and didn’t remember the incident well enough to report it, she told authorities.
“She knows something happened, but she doesn’t know what happened,” McKeithen said.
And those who do know chose not to report it.
“How many of these do we not know about,” McKeithen told the News Herald. “We have such an array of blame to pass. My blame is that these people coming to Panama City Beach think this is acceptable.”
McKeithen said the “gang rape” and subsequent arrests were a tipping point for law enforcement when it comes to the recklessness of Spring Break. Authorities have already banned drinking on the beach and in parking lots, and have established earlier “last calls” at local bars, to no avail. Even though local businesses are upset with laws that curtail the drinking because it hurts business, authorities say they’re going to continue to fight for stricter Spring Break regulations in the future.
We’ve all heard the horror stories of what goes on during spring break – the drinking, the drugs, the crimes, and even the deaths. But police in Panama City say they got leads on other sexual assaults that happened on the beach – in broad daylight – just by following social media! This means people are witnessing these heartless acts, videotaping them on their cellphones and talking about them on social media, but not reporting them to authorities.
If this isn’t the definition of moral collapse, what is?
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