PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla — Keeping guns out of the wrong hands: that's the goal of the newly passed Juvenile Justice Bill, which will increase penalties for minors committing firearms violations.
Over the last several months an increase in crime has sparked the attention of law enforcement across the state and right here in Tampa Bay, making lawmakers take action.
10 Tampa Bay's Angelina Salcedo takes a "deeper dive" into three Bay Area counties where the problem keeps growing, along with the penalties to hold minors accountable.
The crime rate in Pinellas, Polk and Manatee counties is actually lower than what each sheriff has seen in the past 10 years, but what they're noticing is a shift in the type of crimes and who is committing them.
"What we are seeing is an uptick in...kids that have more guns and kids that are involved in violent crime," Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said.
The shootings are quick, dangerous and continue plaguing our communities. The latest case in Pinellas took the life of a 23-year-old mom on Christmas Eve.
"You don't ever get undead, at the hands of a punk who was upset because he didn't get enough Christmas gifts from his mom," Gualtieri said back in December a day after the shooting.
When asked what he thought about the incident and two teen brothers being involved, the sheriff said it was a "bad" situation.
"One, 14 and 15-year-olds should not have guns and by all accounts, they had guns all the time on them. That's what the investigation showed. People said even when they went shopping with their mom that day they were carrying guns. Kids should not carry guns and they shouldn't kill their 23-year-old sister holding her 11-month-old daughter," Gualtieri said.
According to deputies, the two brothers both had prior arrests.
The issue is the same in Polk County, where Sheriff Grady Judd said a drive-by shooting in 2023 involving a 19, 14 and 13-year-old was targeted at an opposing gang. Dashcam video shows them all running after a pursuit.
"This bad guy has stopped, has spun around and is shooting at the police officer and shoots him in the foot then turns to run. The police officer chases him now and ends up shooting him, but not killing him. You know who it is? Our 13-year-old that we just arrested with a gun through four months earlier," Judd said.
No matter where the shootings happen, each incident is more disheartening than the last. In Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells showed his frustration at the beginning of the year when two separate incidents put people in danger, including his deputies.
"The first incident was involving one of my deputies, who was doing his job with his canine trying to apprehend a person that was breaking into vehicles in a neighborhood. As the deputy and the dog start to approach the suspect, he starts to flee and he starts to fire at my deputy. When he saw the dog, he started to fire at the dog as well," Sheriff Wells said.
The boy in this case was just 17 years old. The deputy and canine took shots but came out of the incident okay.
"Just a few days later, we had another juvenile that had a gun that he had stolen breaking into a home that was still under construction, and we have a security guard doing his job trying to make sure nothing is stolen from this house. The only reason why that security guard is still alive is because he didn't know how to operate the gun and he didn't have around in the chamber," Sheriff Wells said. "Once again, that's disturbing for this young man. He would have been in prison for the rest of his life because he chose to take another life instead of taking responsibility for what he had done."
Manatee County saw an increase in shootings involving people under 18 in 2023 after a dip the year before. Nine suspects were tracked in 2022 despite 27 incidents happening. Just last year the number of suspects jumped to 25 and the incidents to 39.
"We can do something about these guns being left in vehicles. We're just making it too easy for these kids to get guns. We just got to do a better job," Sheriff Wells said.
Data shows the number of guns stolen from vehicles in the county jumped from 66 in 2022 to 83 the following year. The numbers saw similar increases in both Pinellas and Polk. Each gun stolen is likely being used to commit a crime and deputies say many of the teens involved have a history with law enforcement.
"There's not enough consequences in the system and kids don't get the message. It's not enough of a deterrent and it's not enough of a consequence. The 14-year-old had their first minor in possession of a firearm at age 12. If there had been consequences and it hadn't been a misdemeanor, nothing happened to him, maybe we wouldn't be sitting here talking about what happened in December 2023," Sheriff Gualtieri said.
Now sheriff's offices are turning to the legislature for help. In Tallahassee, lawmakers took up the 'Juvenile Justice Bill' filed at the start of the new year. Its goal is to crack down on teen gun crimes.
"The reason you're hearing from us is we're the ones that instead of taking it or allowing the community to take it we're standing up and making it difference. If we deal with these very violent, very dangerous kids at the front end, then we don't have to move them to adult court where they can mess up the rest of their life." Sheriff Judd said.
The bill already passed both the House and Senate, if signed into law the penalty charge for a minor in possession of a gun would be raised from a first-degree misdemeanor to a third-degree felony. It would force the teen to spend time in a secure detention facility anywhere from 5 to 21 days for their first and second offense. If violated a third time, the teen would be adjudicated delinquent and put in a residential program.
When asked if they thought stricter laws would help, each sheriff agreed something had to be done to help curb the increase of incidents.
"It makes it harder for us to keep the community safe when you got a whole lot of kids out there with a whole lot of guns committing crime. Hopefully, this has a positive effect and positive impact," Gualtieri said. "It shows that there are consequences so that these kids who have the tendency to go out and do it aren't out there doing it and it sends a message to others that if they engage in that type of conduct, that they're going to face those types of serious and significant consequences and will make them not want to do it."
The hope is it will help lessen violent crime among kids and help deputies keep our communities across the bay safe.
"We're losing juveniles to gun violence throughout the entire country. We're seeing kids either being killed by another juvenile with a firearm or by a friend who made a mistake and was careless with a firearm. If we can save a life, even if that means you may spend six months in a juvenile detention facility, if we can get you to wake up and to act differently when you get out, then I think they would all agree it was worth it," Sheriff Wells said.
The bill is currently on Governor DeSantis' desk. Teen advocates who try to protect our youth and keep them off the streets with programs aren't a fan of it, and say it's too harsh. They think the upgraded felony charge has the potential to ruin a teen's life.
If signed it will take effect July 1st. We'll have to wait until then to see the true effect of stricter laws.