Tallahassee police arrested a 15-year-old on Sunday over the Saturday-night shooting behind Florida A&M’s Bragg Memorial Stadium that injured 12 people, and the second charge against him tells you more about the case than his age does.
- The shooting came just before 8 p.m. Saturday near Perry and Manatee streets, after the homecoming game. Eleven people were shot and a twelfth was hurt running away, six of the twelve were minors, and the youngest was 11.
- Police Chief Lawrence Revell announced the arrest Monday. Anthony Rivers III faces 11 counts of attempted second-degree murder, one for each person shot, and one count of possession of a firearm by a delinquent.
- A judge ordered him held Monday, officials say he is being charged as an adult, and his arraignment is set for November 16.
- Police say a fight came first between people who knew each other and that none of the victims appear to have been the intended targets. As of Sunday evening six victims were still in the hospital, one in critical condition.
What Florida law says. The charge’s wording matches Statute 790.23, which covers anyone “found, in the courts of this state, to have committed a delinquent act that would be a felony if committed by an adult” who is under 24. A parallel clause covers findings in another state. Police have not named a statute in anything we read, so this is our reading of the text against the charge.
What police have said. Nothing about an earlier case, and nothing about where the gun came from. The coverage we read repeats the charge’s name without saying what it requires, and the arrest announcement itself describes a dispute, not a record.
What the Firearm Charge Takes for Granted
Florida already bars minors from possessing a firearm outside a few exceptions such as hunting, and under Statute 790.22(3) a minor’s first violation is only a first-degree misdemeanor. The felony police announced rests on something else. If it is 790.23, then a court had to find this teenager delinquent for an act that would be a felony for an adult before the gun became a second crime. You are looking at a charge that cannot exist without an earlier case, which is exactly the detail nobody has described.
We think that makes the age the wrong place to start. If the reading holds, the system had already marked this boy as someone who should not touch a gun, so the law did its work on paper and the gap sits between the paperwork and the weapon. A statute cannot close that gap. Only a person or a policy can, and the answers that matter are the ones missing now: what the earlier case was, how a gun reached a 15-year-old, and whether anyone else is accountable for how it got there. Revell has said more arrests are possible. A barred teenager with a gun is an enforcement failure whatever age he is tried at, and the public should hear the answers before this turns into an argument about juvenile court.
The November 16 arraignment is the first date a court record might say any of it. Until then, anyone with information can reach Tallahassee police at 850-891-4610.