Police in Florida are investigating an obscure law that could allow for a group of teens to be charged with a misdemeanor after watching, videotaping, and laughing at a drowning man.
Jamel Dunn’s body was found near a pond in Cocoa, Fla. on July 14, two days after his fiancée reported him missing.
There was widespread anger after the video of the drowning was made public, with the teenagers saying things like “Ain’t nobody fixing to help you.”
While it’s generally not a crime to fail to come to someone’s rescue in Florida or elsewhere in the U.S., police say they’ve found an obscure law that will allow them to charge the teenagers.
The law, Section 406.12 in the Florida Statutes, states:
“It is the duty of any person in the district where a death occurs… to report such death and circumstances forthwith to the district medical examiner.
“Any person who knowingly fails or refuses to report such death and circumstances… shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree.”
Cocoa Mayor Henry Parrish III says the misdemeanor charge is at least a start in the July 9 drowning death of 31-year-old Dunn.
“While this in no way will bring justice for what occurred, it is a start,” Parrish said in a statement. “I know that everyone working on this investigation has been tireless in their efforts to find answers.”
While police are pursuing charges, police chief Mike Cantaloupe says there’s not a lot of justice in a misdemeanor charge.
“I don’t know as there’s any just outcome to this, I’ve got to be honest with you,” he said Friday. “There’s nothing that’s going to replace somebody’s life.”
READ MORE: ‘It would have saved my son’: Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act becomes law in Canada
Dunn’s fiancée says it’s not enough.
“I think there should be some type of laws put in place that if someone’s asking for help, that you should be obligated to at least call 911,” she told WESH News.