Spring break is a time for fun in the sun, wild parties, and sometimes moments that wind up on YouTube. Unfortunately, the festivities are never without incident with the latest being a shooting in Panama City, Florida that has left seven college students injured. The incident occurred on Thomas Dr., one of the main roads through Panama City.
CNN reports that when officers arrived on the scene, they described it as “ complete chaos. ” A total of seven students, several of which were on spring break from Georgia A&M University, were wounded by gunfire with authorities trying to piece together the events that lead up to the incident. In fact, things were so chaotic after the shooting that deputies from five adjacent counties and officers from the Florida Highway Patrol and Panama City Beach police were called in to assist.
Three of the injured students were found in the home where the shooting started, one outside the home, one in the median of the road, with the last two found on the other side of the street. A total of 100 witnesses so far have come forward to help officers figure out how things escalated. Officers have in custody David Jarmichael Daniels, 22, of Mobile, Alabama, who is being charged with seven accounts of attempted murder for the shooting spree.
At this time, three of the students are listed in critical condition, three are considered in stable condition, with the seventh student’s condition unknown; at the time of the press release the student was in surgery.
The Thomas Dr. shooting wasn’t the only gun related spring break violence that took place last night. Officers say that a total of six firearm related events happened with four guns being seized in a a drug case.
The spring break violence doesn’t come as a surprise to local authorities. ABC News reports that Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen had something to say during a press conference.
“We have drunk people under the influence with guns and no respect for themselves, others, and – most of all – authority,” he said. “We have a recipe for disaster.”
Georgia A&M University was informed of the shooting by a Bay County investigator and were told that their students were “innocent victims in the wrong place.”
Gun and drug violence seems to be par for the course during spring break romps, but a member of a Florida frathouse has taken violence to a whole new disheartening level. As reported by the Inquisitr , during a spring break party, a young man took from his backpack was appears to be a live hamster, bites the head off of the creature, spits it, out and tosses the body over a fence surrounding the yard. The animal rights group PETA has started a campaign to find the young man and have him prosecuted for animal cruelty.
[Image courtesy of ABC news ]