A newly hired firefighter says while on shift at Station 21, known as the “Friendship” station on Southwest 90th Street in Ocala, he was hazed, which includes being beaten with his own belt.
And 10 fire rescue employees are now without a job after they were fired because of the incident in November. Four of the 10 are facing charges for their involvement.
A four-second video shows a firefighter being held on the ground by three of his coworkers.
“I’m like stop, stop, stop, and I’m trying to like get away,” shared the victim.
According to a report, it started at the beginning of his shift when he was detailing ladders.
Paramedic QG, who was not arrested, wiped grease on the victim. Then co-defendants, Seth Day and Tate Trauthwein did the same, but things escalated.
After ordering pizza for dinner, a disagreement about whether or not the victim threw Seth Day’s pizza away seems to have made things worse.
Several firefighters then got mad at the victim when he didn’t have his old viral dancing TikTok to show them. This caused Trauthwein to throw the victim’s work boots into the woods.
When the victim went to get his boots, he was grabbed from behind by 22-year-old EK III. He was held on the ground and had his belt and pants removed.
“I thought they were just like playing around. But once he took the belt off, I was like ok, we need to chill and stop,” the victim said. “And once they unbuttoned my pants and pulled them down, I was trying to like actually fight and get out.”
In an interview with co-defendant Kaylee Bradley, she says K grabbed a water pitcher and said, “It’s waterboarding time.” She did not witness this, but says it was impossible just to dribble the water because the pitcher did not have a lid.
The victim says it happened three times, and he could not breathe.
“We ended up getting a call, so I had to go. I threw on a different shirt because it was covered in mud from the water, and then we ran that call,” shared the victim.
After the incident, the victim was re-assigned to another station.
“I told them that I never wanted to work at 21 again with them,” the victim said.
The hearing for the four defendants is scheduled for Jan. 13.
The internal investigation into the hazing shows how other fire rescue employees responded.
Detectives say firefighter Michael Gatto told his crew about the hazing, and they passed the reports to fire rescue leadership.
Firefighter John Tweedy saw some of the hazing and told them to stop. Tyler Touchton saw some hazing as well, but reports aren’t clear whether he alerted anyone.
Among the most recent firings are “All leadership personnel who were on duty during the shift at Station 21 on the day of the incident.”
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Source: wcjb
