BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Two months after the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said a boater injured three people on another boat during a Christmas boat parade in Brevard County, body camera video from responding officers is shedding light on the investigation.
Millions saw the video of the crash, itself, on Sykes Creek.
The FWC said Cameron Michaels, 25, drove a jet boat that looked like a sports car and crashed into another boat.
When the FWC officer got to Sykes Creek Drive on Dec. 7, his body camera showed it wasn’t long before many neighbors shared their videos with him of how Michaels was boating.
“Oh, my God,” the officer reacted. “That’s reckless all day. The video is pretty much the nail in the coffin,” he told witnesses.
In its report shared with News 6 a month ago, the FWC said that Michaels said he didn’t see the other boat.
He can also be heard on the body camera admitting to doing donuts.
“Just cruising down and just started having fun and just doing donuts, not like, you know, like, wave-wise, crazy, but like, just literally, just donuts in circles,” Michaels told the officer.
Michaels continued by saying that the other boat was ‘pitch black’ without lights on.
“And I did not, at all, see him. So I accelerated right into his backside,” he said.
Michaels didn’t go to jail that night.
Instead, he received a $140 ticket for speeding in a manatee zone, and he’s still facing two misdemeanors—one charge for reckless boating and another for hurting the people on the other boat.
His next day in court is in March.
In December, witness Don Wilson told News 6 reporter James Sparvero how he’d like to see the case resolved.
“I think that the fella who perpetrated that incident should pay a price,” the neighbor said. “Maybe, go to a boating safety class. And then, next time he’s out here boating, a little more respectful.”
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