CALLAHAN, Fla. – A 16-year-old Nassau County girl was arrested after video was posted online showing her attacking another teenage girl Monday afternoon at a Callahan basketball court. Deputies said the teenager charged with battery told them she was “just having a bad day.”
The video of the attack at Ewing Park is disturbing. It is spreading on social media.
Deputies said the aggressor pushed the other girl to the ground, stood the victim and slapped and punched her. The girl doing the slapping and punching can be heard asking the girl on the ground to hit her back but the victim refused and continued to take more hits.
The victim’s mother took her to the hospital to get checked out.
This incident was reported to the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office on Monday night, but deputies say at the time the mother of the victim did not want to press charges. But after learning this video was uploaded to Facebook, the mother changed her mind.
Deputies arrested the teenager at home about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and released her to the custody of her parents later in the day. News4Jax is not identifying her as she is a minor and it is not clear if she is charged with a felony.
Rhonda Hagan and Tabatha Strauder were shocked to see the video. They both frequent the park to workout, but were not there when the attack happened.
“What teenagers are doing these days is like, do I really want to bring my toddler and children here to witness stuff,” Hagan said.
“If it were just me and my child here, I obviously would have gone over and saved the girl,” Strauder said. “It’s disheartening to see something like that.”
Investigators said the girls have had beef with each other for several months and it led up to Monday evening’s attack. It’s worth mentioning that the girl who was arrested had prior run-ins with deputies involving similar incidents, and that several people on the basketball court at the time can be seen in the video and no one tries to intervene.
News4Jax crime and safety expert Ken Jefferson said there is a reason why so many of these types of videos are popping up on social media so frequently.
“They’re on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube. They’re all over the place and people who post these sorts of things are looking for some type of notoriety for it,” Jefferson said.