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Pasco Mom Reports Son's Videotaped Fight To Deputies

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By LISA A. DAVIS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 5, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY A mother of a 13-year-old boy clicked on a YouTube video and was upset to see her son fighting with an older boy.

If that wasn't disturbing enough, she was told the parents of the 14-year-old boy encouraged the fight, and she could hear them on the video shouting for their son to throw specific punches, according to a Pasco County Sheriff's Office report.

The fight lasted two minutes and that was more than enough for the mother, whose name wasn't released, to alert authorities.

Now deputies are investigating the incident that occurred at W.H. Jack Mitchell Jr. Park on Little Road on Friday evening, sheriff's office spokesman Doug Tobin said.

Most of the five-page sheriff's office report is redacted while the case remains under investigation. As of this afternoon nobody has been arrested in connection to the incident, Tobin said.

The younger boy's mother took him to Morton Plant North Bay Hospital after he doubled over in pain, the report states. It isn't clear whether the boy was treated for injuries from the fight.

The video is no longer on YouTube, a Web site where anyone can post videos.

According to the sheriff's office report, one of the boys was upset by a wrestling move the other performed on a friend. The boys arranged to fight at the county sports complex at 4825 Little Road but the younger boy wanted to back out because other children told him the older boy's father "was crazy."

However, punches flew while a crowd of teenagers looked on.

The boys took closed-fist swings at each other, landing several, the report states.

"We want to talk to the parents of the 14-year-old to get their side of the story," Tobin said.

The sheriff's office has reviewed the YouTube clip and interviewed witnesses.

Deputies also are interested in talking with other witnesses and are asking anyone who saw the fight to call their dispatch at (727) 844-7711.

Several clips of fights have shown up recently on the video-sharing Web site — many between children — and have led to arrests.

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