PENSACOLA, Fla. - A 14-year-old boy died Friday during the admission process at a Florida boot camp for juvenile offenders in a case similar to what happened in White County last year.
Martin Lee Anderson of Bay County had just arrived at the Panama City camp Thursday and was doing push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and other exercises that are part of the camp's physical fitness assessment when he became uncooperative and had to be restrained, said Ruth Sasser, spokeswoman for the Bay County Sheriff's Office, which operates the boot camp.
"As to how much restraint, it is my understanding that it was not dramatic or unusual," Sasser said. "They stand beside them or put them on the ground or put them against a wall. They do not hit them or knock them over, nothing physically violent."
Anderson then complained of breathing problems and a nurse was called, who recommended that he be taken to the hospital. Four minutes after an ambulance was called, Anderson became unresponsive, she said. He was taken to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, where he died early Friday.
"We haven't got a clue why he died. He'd only been there for two hours," Sasser said.
Anderson was sent to the boot camp after a June arrest for grand theft and had passed a physical screening required for admission to the program, she said.
"Right now no one can understand why we've had this problem. We don't just take anyone for this program, they have to be screened," Sasser said.
The Bay County Sheriff's Office, The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Department of Juvenile Justice are investigating the death. The state agencies did not immediately return calls for comment Friday.
The camp opened in 1994 as an state alternative-to-prison program. It is a six-month, military style program for offenders between the ages of 14 and 18 found guilty of committing at least a third-degree felony.
The News Herald of Panama City reported two other instances in the program's 12 years that emergency medical crews were called to the camp _ after an instructor had chest pains and when a teen appeared to be suffering from pneumonia.
WHITE COUNTY CASE
Six men are facing charges in the White County case, stemming from the death of an asthmatic 13-year-old boy at a state camp in for troubled youths.
Travis Parker died last April at the Appalachian Wilderness Camp after counselors restrained him for more than an hour. Authorities say he also was denied his asthma inhaler while he was being restrained.
In August, the official responsible for training at the camp - Sam Shoemaker - was fired after he refused to take a lie-detector test regarding practices at the camp.
An autopsy determined the face-down restraint caused Parker's death.
Shoemaker was told to take a lie-detector test as part of an internal investigation into the death by the state Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases.
Agency director Gwen Skinner says he was fired for his failure to cooperate with the investigation.
AccessNorthGa.com's Ken Stanford contributed to this story.
Wednesday
July 16th, 2025
5:26AM
