LEE COUNTY, Fla. — More insight is being revealed into the ongoing controversy over a video of a 10-year-old's arrest by Lee County Sheriff's Office on charges of making a threat against his elementary school.
The boy's family has released an audio recording of the child's interrogation by deputies.
Prior to the Memorial Day weekend arrest, deputies interviewed the boy at his home, with his father nearby.
"It was like this joke that I scammed someone for a lot of money," the boy can be heard saying. "And then I said I bought, like, guns with it. It was just a joke."
In the interview, deputies ask about the texts sent from his phone, including a photo of a gun and a message saying "Get ready for water day" (an annual event held by the school). They ask where he got the picture of the gun.
Boy: Uhh... Google.
Deputy: So you just Googled guns and found it?
Boy: Uh yeah.
Deputies then ask to see the phone. You can hear the boy reiterate it was a joke, and you hear the investigators respond with laughter.
Deputy: Wow. For a lot of money.
Boy: It was just a joke.
Deputy: *Laughter*
Dereck Marquez, the boy's father, says that once he saw the messages, he knew what would come next.
"I put two-and-two together and said, 'Yeah, I'm gonna get a visit by the cops,'" he recalled.
That visit ultimately led to a public arrest, in which the boy's name and face were released on the Lee County Sheriff's Office social media channels. The video has since garnered nationwide attention, replayed countless times on network news programs and syndicated shows like "Inside Edition."
Sheriff Carmine Marceno has made no apologies for the action. "Fake threat, real consequence," he has gone on-record as saying.
Fox 4 has decided not to reveal the boy's name and is blurring his face in all instances. As a minor who has not been convicted of a crime, we feel revealing such details at this juncture could have negative impacts on his future should he be cleared.
However, one group says Marceno should face consequences for his action.
In a letter [PDF] from the attorney for the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism, the group calls for the Department of Justice to investigate "constitutional and civil rights violations" against the 10-year-old.
Part of their reasoning is that they say deputies knew, via this interrogation, that the image of guns in the messages came from an internet search, and not an actual gun the boy had in his possession.
The letter also claims the sheriff's office fabricated the text messages in a video about the incident posted to TikTok. The group claims the picture highlighted "was a cynical attempt to frame a 10-year-old child in the eyes of the public as having made a threat when that is not true."
The child is facing one count of a written threat to conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge, a stance his father has maintained.
"He's just a child," Marquez said. "He was just being stupid."
