A sheriff's department in Florida has released a video showing spring break revelers milling about on a beach not 10 feet from where an unconscious 19-year-old girl was being gang raped by a group of men.
The brief cellphone clip came to light as deputies continued searching for two additional suspects in the March attack in Panama City Beach that was witnessed by hundreds of people who failed to intervene.
So far, authorities have arrested a pair of students from Alabama's Troy University who were allegedly seen in a cellphone video recorded last month sexually assaulting a 19-year-old girl in Panama city Beach.
Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen described the graphic video as the 'most disgusting, sickening thing' he had ever seen likened the scene to 'wild animals preying on a carcass laying in the woods'. He said the sickening footage shows at least three men surrounding an incapacitated woman on a beach chair.
Who are they? Police release images of the spring breakers who stood by and 'did nothing' as a girl was 'gang raped by two students in sickening Florida attack'
Troy University students Delonte' Martistee, 22, and Ryan Austin Calhoun, 23, have been suspended from the Alabama school
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Ruth Corley said the video was released ‘to show the crowd that was surrounding the incident and to show people, not only was it a horrible event, but it was witnessed by so many people who did absolutely nothing to stop or call police.’
The alleged victim told deputies she thought she had been drugged before the incident and that she was afraid to report it because she could not remember many details, Panama City News Herald reported.
'She knows something happened, but she doesn't know what happened,' the Bay County sheriff said.
Officials did not release any more information about the two other men wanted in connection with the gang rape, but they said additional arrests are expected.
Friday's charges against college track star Martistee and his classmate Calhoun stem from a video footage that was found on a cell phone during an unconnected investigation into a shooting in Troy, Alabama.
Alerting the Bay County Sheriff's Office, the two departments worked together to identify two suspects and the alleged victim.
In the video, McKeithen said one man is heard in the clip saying, 'she isn't going to know,' before putting his hand inside her bikini bottoms.
The incapacitated young woman is surrounded by several men while seated on a beach chair during the video filmed behind Spinnaker Beach Club.
McKeithen told a press conference: 'This is happening in broad daylight with hundreds of people seeing and hearing what is happening and they are more concerned about spilling their beer than somebody being raped.
'This is such a traumatizing event for this girl. No one should have to fear this would happen in Panama City Beach, but it does.'
The sheriff's office said it has encountered incidents like this before through leads found on social media.
In one video, police said a crowd pours beer on a girl who appears to be incapacitated while a male performs a sexual act on her.
And recently, officers took inventory of the guns and drugs recovered during Spring Break this year which included marijuana, MDMA, cocaine, heroin as well as 49 handguns - which increased from nine last year.
This most recent alleged sexual attack and the arrests made on Friday have served as a tipping point for the Bay County Sheriff's Office.
McKeithen touted laws during Spring Break such as banning drinking on the beach and parking lots as well as clubs not being able to allow non-military people under 21 to enter. He said he will fight to have even more strict Spring Break regulations in the coming year.
'This draws the line in the sand for us,' he said. 'It is not safe for our children on the beach... If you condone this behavior, you should be in jail, as far as I'm concerned.'
Following their arrest, Martistee and Calhoun were suspended from Troy University. The 22-year-old student-athlete, who remained in jail Sunday, was also removed from the track and field team.
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