A 16-year-old boy who turned himself in after a video posted on social media that showed a woman being slammed to the ground then tossed into a pool at a rowdy pool party in North Lauderdale over the weekend will spend the next three weeks at his home under surveillance.
The teen surrendered to Broward Sheriff's Office Monday around 5 p.m. On Tuesday, he was given 21 days in juvenile detention, which he will serve at his home while wearing an ankle monitor. He faces one count of battery on a person 65 years of age or older.
Footage showed the handcuffed 16-year-old being escorted into the Broward Regional Juvenile Facility Monday evening. The teen told officers, "I messed up and I have to own up to it," according to an arrest report.
BSO was looking into the incident that happened Saturday at the pool at the Players Place Townhomes on Champions Way.
The video shows the 68-year-old woman, identified as Nancy James, walking with her two dogs as she approached the group to ask them to turn down their music. A group gathers around James as someone is heard saying "throw her in" in the background.
Then the teen in a red shirt picks James off the ground and they both fall to the ground. He then grabs James and throws her into the pool while also falling in himself.
It appears one of the woman's dogs also ends up in the pool. The video shows most of the large crowd fleeing the pool before it ends.
According to a BSO report, James and another woman went to the pool, where they said there were nearly 200 kids in the pool and surrounding area.
James was "very frightened and upset" and was "drenched in water from her shoulders down," a deputy wrote in the report. She also had a bruise on the bottom of her leg.
Vids: 61 y/o woman looks to be slammed to ground and thrown into pool w/her dogs. "She was trying to break up the party" - friend. @nbc6 https://t.co/ku27BjghEc
— Keith Jones NBC 6 (@KeithNBC6) May 8, 2017
The report said James had her cellphone and house alarm key fob in her pocket when she was thrown in the pool.
"Several unit owners called us, the sheriff's office was called. One of the ladies on the board of directors went over there to break up the situation and the sheriff's department took quite a while to get there," property manager Glen Sugarman said.
James is the director of the board for the townhomes.
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A friend of the victim told NBC 6 that James had recently undergone hip surgery. She said authorities had been called for the loud noise but hadn't arrived by the time the victim confronted the group.
"She doesn't walk that good, you can see that. Like, why would you do that to her?" friend Shay McNair said. "She was recovering already from what I understand a broken hip from not long ago."
At her home Monday, James said she didn't want to discuss the incident.
"I'm not talking to you until I finish talking to the police," she told a reporter.
One girl who was at the party said the man didn't slam James to the ground on purpose.
"He picked her up below the butt and that's when he slipped and fell," the girl said. "We started to scream when she fell cause we thought she had hurt something. Everyone started running after that cause we all got scared."
