- April 25, 2024
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A 19-year-old is being charged with child abuse for allegedly hitting a 17-year-old and a 15-year-old during a fight.
Deputies were called out to “physical disturbance” at the Tropical Smoothie on State Road 100 at about 2:52 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 20.
Three teenagers told a deputy that a group of boys had been walking up and down the sidewalk in front of Tropical Smoothie when someone they identified as Kensley Noel, 19, came up to one of the teenage boys and began arguing with him, according to an arrest report.
One of the teen girls said she tried to stop the argument, but Noel then shoved someone — whether he shoved the girl or someone else is unclear, because the teenagers’ names are redacted in deputies’ reports — and Noel and his friends began to attack the other kids.
Another teen told deputies that Noel had showed up at Tropical Smoothie with about 10 friends and that they hit a teenage girl who’d asked them to leave.
Another teen told deputies that when one of the teens tried to retaliate, Noel and his friends attacked him, and someone stole his phone.
The owner of the Tropical Smoothie told deputies that “she witnessed multiple boys hitting other boys and girls,” according to an arrest report. She took a photo of the group leaving the business.
The teenagers gave a deputy a description of Noel and said he’d run off toward Olive Garden, where he worked — missing his shoes, slip-ons left behind in the fracas that a deputy later found and photographed.
A deputy found Noel in the Olive Garden bathroom.
Family members of the two teenagers Noel allegedly hit said they wanted to pursue charges.
Noel faces two charges of child abuse. He bonded out of the county jail Feb. 21.
