Last month, three St. Petersburg (FL) teen girls drowned after leading police on a chase in a stolen car. One of the girls accidentally drove a stolen car into a cemetery pond and police originally reported that they had waded in the water in order to try and save them. However, it wasn’t until earlier this week that dashcam footage was released and revealed that the officers literally watched the car sink and did nothing to try and recoup the young ladies and even listened to them scream until they died.
According to The GED Section, “The story goes, a friend asked Damien Marriott, 35, to drive the teenage girls to Child’s Park that Wednesday night. When Marriott stopped at Walmart to buy a tv, the three girls took off in his 1990 Honda Accord. Hours later, deputies caught the Honda running a red light with the headlights turned off, as deputies chased the girls, they entered the back of a cemetery, which is where they accidentally drove into a pond.” 16-year-old Dominique Battle, 15-year-old Ashaunti Butler, and 15-year-old Laniya Miller were pronounced dead shortly thereafter.
During a press conference the following morning, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, praised his deputies “stripping out of their belts and diving into the water to save those girls. Disturbingly enough, the dashcam footage that was released shows that they clearly lied. You can see and hear in the video that the officers stood on the shore and all of them said that they heard screaming, but still did nothing. Once the screaming ceased, one of the officers said, “They are done. They are 6-7 dude.”
Check out the disturbing footage below:
https://youtu.be/7rS6dN08RGM
Now, sure, these girls had a checkered past, but does that mean they deserved to die? They were still somebody’s children and probably needed a little more guidance and love. This is not right!
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Source: http://www.rawstory.com/2016/04/watch-dash-cam-video-shows-florida-cops-stood-by-as-teens-drowned-in-stolen-car/, https://youtu.be/7rS6dN08RGM