Witnesses say a father punched and grabbed his wife and daughters while at Bowman’s Beach on Sanibel.
Sanibel Police arrested Pascal Albert, 45, on Friday for contributing to delinquency of a minor. His arrest report says he and his family were visiting from France. People who saw the incident said the charges weren’t harsh enough.
Tennis Craig and her family visit Sanibel a few times a year from the Jacksonville area. She and her daughter were walking the nature paths when they heard screaming sounds coming from the bathroom.
“We just took off running, thinking we were try to do some kind of help with whatever was going on,” Craig said. “A man — a grown adult man — pulling what looked like maybe a 12 or 13-year-old girl by her arm, and dragging her in the sand. My daughter, she saw him actually punch the mom.”
She said a crowd gathered around and Albert kept yelling and cussing.
“Everybody in the whole group, we’re telling him stop, that we’re calling the cops, you can't act like this, and he was just screaming and yelling the whole time,” Craig said.
She said Albert tried to take his family and leave but the group kept watching them until police arrived.
People at Bowman’s Beach on Monday couldn’t believe it.
“It’s unacceptable,” Angela Bussie said. “This should be a relaxing, peaceful setting. Calm.”
Craig told Four in Your Corner’s Lisa Greenberg Albert got off too easy.
“I think he personally should have some kind of child abuse or battery charges. It was really disturbing,” she said.
Because Albert is from France, police said he had the right to notify their consular officials. He was released from jail on a $1,500 bond.
