Two teenage girls near Tampa and their family members are facing charges after video of the girls fighting showed up on YouTube, with the parents reportedly watching.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said Friday that the two adults were charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The two girls have been charged with affray, which is being involved in a public brawl, or disturbing the peace.
Authorities tracked down everyone suspected to be involved in the Wimauma, Fla., incident after someone reported seeing the footage of two juveniles fighting on YouTube Thursday.
"They had been planning on fighting. Their parents learned that these issues had been occurring so they helped engage this fight. They actually brought them to the scene," said Sheriff's Spokesman Larry McKinnon told MyFoxTampaBay.
The video clearly shows two adults watching the scuffle from a few feet away and, appearing to make no effort or intervention to stop the fight. The video shows one girl pulling the other's hair and hitting her, and young children also watching.
"Detectives were able to determine that this was a mother and an adult sister encouraging both of their smaller children to fight," McKinnon said.
Detectives also said there has been a long-standing feud between the families.
Nida Longoria, 26, and Veronica Zertuche, 28, were charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Zertuche's mother, Angelica, said Veronica had a baby 13 days before the fight and couldn't intervene.
"She tried to protect her, but like I said, she just had a baby, she couldn't get in there. Both girls came over to my daughter and my granddaughter and it wasn't them who started the fight," she told MyFoxTampaBay.
The fight happened in front of a closed sheriff's substation, near a large apartment complex. Only a handful of people saw the fight as it happened, but now almost everyone in this neighborhood has seen it, thanks to cell phone video and YouTube.
"Everybody in school is mostly laughing about it, but parents say you shouldn't do that because they think it's a bad thing for children," Angeles Medoza, a classmate of the girls in the fight, told MyFoxTampaBay.
The Sheriff's Office said it is seeing more and more fight videos online. It's working with school resource officers to track down who is on camera in the clips.
"They did the wrong thing. If that happened to me I would just want to do the first thing to stop my girl if it was one of my daughters, I'd stop the fight," Cecilia Hortoano, a neighbor, told MyFoxTampaBay.
The incident is similar to a New York mother who was arrested last month for allegedly driving her 12-year-old daughter to a schoolyard brawl and then egging her on. The fight occurred over a Facebook dispute and was also captured on video.
Now what for Libya? --Elections within the next 8 months --1st vote is for a National Congress which will draft a constitution --2nd vote is for parlimentary and presidential elections
Libyan men and children line up to view the body of Moammar Gadhafi, displayed near a mosque on the outskirts of Misrata
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--Libya will hold elections in the coming months as the war-torn country works toward building a new society in the post-Moammar Gadhafi era, interim government officials announced Saturday.
Mahmoud Jibril, chairman of the National Transitional Council executive board, said elections "should be within a period of eight months, maximum." He spoke at the World Economic Forum in Jordan.
The first vote will be for a National Congress that will draft a constitution. After that, parliamentary and presidential elections will be held.
Gadhafi's death Thursday solidified the power of the NTC, which will mark the country's liberation on Sunday in the eastern city of Benghazi, where the uprising started.
--Despot's last words were 'Do you know what is right or wrong?' --Traditional 24-hour burial delayed as body lies on floor of meat locker --Daughter called father's mobile phone as he was being held by rebels --Still no sign of of son Saif after he has arms 'blown off in bombing raid' --Nato confirms military operations in Libya will end on October 31
His last moments:
Colonel Gaddafi’s widow has backed international demands yesterday for an inquiry into his killing.
Rebel fighters apparently executed the wounded dictator having captured him alive.
As celebrations over the death of the 69-year-old tyrant continued throughout Libya, officials of the ruling National Transitional Council were forced to delay his secret burial for further examination of his battered body.
A new video that apparently shows the moment that tyrant was pulled from his hole and led to a jeep may shed light on how he came to be killed.
The shaky mobile phone footage shows a dozen jeering rebels surrounding the bloodied tyrant, who is hoarse and barely audbile.
Gaddafi says: 'What are you doing? It’s not allowed in Islamic law. What you are doing is forbidden.
'What you’re doing is wrong, guys. Do you know what is right or wrong?'
The young men scream 'Muammar, you dog!' as their former leader wipes at blood covering the left side of his head, neck and left shoulder.
Gaddafi gestures to the young men to be patient, and says 'What's going on?' as he wipes fresh blood from his temple and glances at his palm.
A young fighter later is shown carrying a boot and screaming, 'This is Muammar's shoe! This is Muammar's shoe! Victory! Victory!'
'Keep him alive, keep him alive!' someone shouts.
Another rebel screams: 'God is great. God is omnipotent.' And as Gaddafi begs for mercy, a fighter says: 'Shut up, you dog.' The recording then ends.
Gun fire from an automatic-rile is heard before the recording ends. The Daily Mirror claimed today that these were the fatal bullets. However, there were only signs on his corpse of wounds from handguns and the time of death is understood to have been less than an hour later.
One of the rebels who said he took part in the capture said Gaddafi was shot and wounded at the last minute by one of his own men.
'One of Muammar Gaddafi's guards shot him in the chest,' said Omran Jouma Shawan.
Both the United Nations and Amnesty International called for investigations into the death, a call echoed by Gaddafi’s widow, Safia, from her exile in neighbouring Algeria.
Syrian TV quoted her as calling on the UN to investigate and saying she was proud of the courage shown by her husband and children.
In a statement, the ousted dictator's family asked for the bodies of Gaddafi, his son Mutassim, and others who were killed on Thursday by fighters who overran his hometown Sirte.
'We call on the UN, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and Amnesty International to force the [National] Transitional Council to hand over the martyrs' bodies to our tribe in Sirte and to allow them to perform their burial ceremony in accordance with Islamic customs and rules,' the statement said.
TV reports in Dubai and Jordan claimed yesterday that Gaddafi’s daughter Aisha called her father’s mobile phone after seeing reports in Algeria that he had been captured.
The phone was answered by fighters. Aisha screamed at them and called them ‘rats’.
The shooting has raised unwanted questions about the ability of the new leadership to control the men with guns, as well as causing discomfort for Western allies about respect for justice and human rights among those who claimed to be fighting for just those ideals.
A series of graphic videos apparently taken on mobile phones clearly shows Gaddafi alive after being pulled from a concrete sewer in his home city of Sirte on Thursday morning, being manhandled by NTC fighters and then his dead body being dragged along a pavement.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the NTC had promised to explain how Gaddafi was killed.
'They're dealing with the death itself as well as the aftermath in as transparent a way as I think they can,' he said.
'They've fought bravely to liberate their country from this dictator. And, you know, he met an ignominious end yesterday.'
Gaddafi’s son Mutassim, who commanded the defence of Sirte, was also killed after capture.
Yesterday his body, scarred by numerous cigarette burns, was laid out beside his father’s in a makeshift mortuary at an old meat store in the coastal city of Misrata.
While few mourned the deaths, the growing row cast a shadow over the celebrations with NTC officials and fighters telling differing stories. Some denied that Gaddafi had been executed and claimed instead that he was shot in a firefight after his arrest.
But one NTC minister in the Libyan capital Tripoli told the Mail yesterday that officials had been saying for weeks that Gaddafi would be shot if cornered – a claim at odds with the official rebel line.
‘He took their blood – they had to take his,’ the senior minister said. ‘We couldn’t have stopped them even if we had tried. It was their due after seeing their brothers killed.’
Rupert Colville, a UN human rights spokesman, said: ‘There seem to be four or five different versions of how he died.
‘If you take these videos together, they are rather disturbing because you see someone who has been captured alive and then you see the same person dead.
‘We feel that it is very important that there is a serious investigation into what caused his death.’
Libya’s Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, reading what he said was a post-mortem report, stated that Gaddafi was hauled unresisting from the sewer pipe, shot in the arm and put in a truck which was ‘caught in crossfire’ as it ferried him to hospital.
Dr Ibrahim Tika, who examined the bodies in Misrata yesterday, said: ‘There was a bullet and that was the primary reason for his death, it penetrated his gut . . . then there was another bullet that went in and out of his head.’
The medical evidence appears to support the claims of fighters involved in Gaddafi’s capture who said in the immediate aftermath that he had been shot in the stomach.
UN officials said an investigation would need to examine the ‘wealth’ of video footage which showed a crowd of fighters shoving and pulling the balding Gaddafi, blood splattered on his face and soaking his shirt after he was dragged from the pipe.
Gaddafi could be seen struggling against them, stumbling and shouting as the fighters pushed him on to the bonnet of a truck. One fighter held him down, pressing on his thigh with a pair of shoes in a show of contempt.
Fighters propped him on the hood as they drove for several moments, apparently to parade him around in victory.
‘We want him alive,’ one man shouted before Gaddafi was hauled off the bonnet, some fighters pulling his hair, towards an ambulance.
The controversy delayed the burial which under Islamic custom is meant to take place within 24 hours of death.
(WARNING!! GRAPHIC CONTENT!!)
VIDEO:
PICTURE:
Gruesome spectacle: NTC men gather around Gaddafi's body, taking pictures with their phones and flashing V for victory signs
I was documenting the Occupy WallStreet protesting in Philadelphia, as I document many news stories - ryansbreakingnews.blogspot.com, I was not partaking, I am actually against their movement. However, while taking pictures, I whitnessed a very rude man throw a paint can at city hall. Another whitness and I ran after him, however he stole a bike and got away. After describing him to police and homeland security, the officers seemed to recognize him, having the same description as someone recently caught for earlier vandalism. Eventually they found him, still with Green paint on his shoes.