Civic Issues Blog

Gender/Sexuality/Rights – Third suspect arrested in alleged Panama City gang rape

In mid-March, among the height of Spring Break season in Panama City Beach, Florida, a woman was sexually assaulted by four men while passed out on the beach. The assault was caught on videotape which aired on the news, and the victim, who has no memory of the attack, recognized her tattoos in the blurred footage and contacted authorities.

At 11 p.m. on Tuesday, a third suspect who had been identified in the video of the gang rape was arrested. He had been tracked down visiting family in Georgia, although he is originally from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and is enrolled at Middle Tennessee State University. Two other men had already been arrested and charged with sexual battery by multiple perpetrators.

According to Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen, the video of the rape shows suspects pushing the victim’s hand aside and holding her legs down. Even more disturbing, the beach was crowded by fellow spring-breakers, many standing just two feet away. “There’s hundreds, hundreds of people standing there — watching, looking, seeing, hearing what’s going on,” Sheriff McKeithen said. “And yet our culture and our society and our young people have got to the point where obviously this is acceptable somewhere. I will tell you it is not acceptable in Bay County.” Authorities have three sworn statements from witnesses stating that the assault happened.

As if the story couldn’t be more horrific, Sheriff McKeithen has also stated that it is just one of several videos of incoherent, often drugged, young girls being assaulted on the beaches of Panama City with countless witnesses standing around. This spring break season, the beach community has also seen criminal arrests for various crimes almost triple. McKeithen disgustedly added, “This is not the first video we’ve recovered. It’s not the second video. It’s not the third video. There’s a number of videos we’ve recovered with things similar to this, and I can only imagine how many things we haven’t recovered.”

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