Bay Area law enforcement increases patrols as 'teen takeover' events spread across counties
Cracking down on 'teen takeovers'
Bay Area law enforcement agencies are launching a coordinated crackdown to halt a rising wave of "teen takeover" gatherings swarming public parks and coastlines. FOX 13's Kylie Jones reports.
CLEARWATER, Fla. - Bay Area law enforcement agencies are launching a coordinated crackdown to halt a rising wave of "teen takeover" gatherings swarming public parks and coastlines.
Bay Area ‘teen takeover’ events
The backstory:
Last month in Tampa, police arrested 22 people after a large crowd took over Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, with the suspects ranging in age from 12 to 21 years old.
On Sunday, law enforcement says a mass gathering of hundreds of kids at Clearwater Beach became chaotic very quickly, ending with a 17-year-old shot. Police arrested a 16-year-old in connection with the shooting.
Clearwater police say they've tracked 11 planned "takeover-style events" since Dec. 31. Police say nine were canceled and two never materialized.
Earlier this week, the Hernando County Sheriff's Office stationed extra deputies near the Beacon Cinemas after learning of a potential takeover planned for that area.
Parental accountability
What they're saying:
"Where are the parents? It's not our job to put the kids on the basketball court," Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said. "It's the parents' job [to] make sure that these kids are doing the right thing."
Gubernatorial candidate James Fishback also called for harsher legal penalties for the participants in these incidents.
"Only two of them were arrested and charged," Fishback said. "400, 500 of them could have easily been charged with misdemeanor affray, or I can go a step further and charge them with felony rioting."
Law enforcement officials say the takeover in Clearwater escalated very quickly.
Courtesy: Clearwater Police Department
"Just because you have kids that are gathering, you try to balance that, because they weren't doing stuff that we've seen in the past with something," Gualtieri said. "Go back to the 2020 situation, especially down in St. Pete during the riots. They weren't throwing rocks, they weren't throwing bottles, they weren't breaking windows. They weren't doing anything other than being there and then, when the shooting happened is when the melee happened."
Legal consequences
Why you should care:
Law enforcement agencies around the Tampa Bay region have vowed to hold kids and their parents legally responsible when possible.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from a news conference with the Clearwater Police Department and Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, official comments from Hernando County Sheriff Al Neinhuis and a news conference with gubernatorial candidate James Fishback.