Hundreds of people filled a Florida church for the funeral of a disabled man who drowned while a group of teens taunted him, did nothing to help him and recorded his death.
Thirty-one-year-old Jamel Dunn died on July 9 in a retention pond in Cocoa, Florida, but it took days for his body to be discovered on July 14.
Dunn's death was horrifyingly recorded by a group of teenagers, ages 14 to 16, who were heard in the video laughing at him as he struggled and drowned.
More than 200 mourners dressed in red gathered for the funeral of the disabled man at Zion Orthodox Primitive Baptist Church on Saturday, the Daily Mail reported.
At the service, Pastor Jarvis Wash, who officiated, touched on the tragic circumstances of Dunn's death, reported Florida Today.
Wash told the grieving crowd he couldn't understand how the teens could witness the events unfold and not do anything to try and save the father-of-two.
Dunn's red casket was taken by horse and carriage to Riverview Memorial Gardens for burial.
Florida prosecutors are deciding whether to file charges against the teens.
Legal experts said although it was reprehensible and morally outrageous, the teens had no obligation to rescue Dunn.
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, in a 2012 legal argument, summarized that across the U.S. there's no general duty to render aid to someone in distress.
"You don't have the duty to rescue someone if that person is in danger. The blind man is walking in front of a car and you do not have a duty to stop him absent some relation between you," Kennedy said in arguments on the Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare."
Kennedy added that there are "some severe moral criticisms of that rule, but that's generally the rule."
Police in the city of Cocoa discovered that five teenagers, ages 14 to 16, had made a video of Dunn's drowning.
The sickening footage was filmed just after noon on July 9 in Cocoa, Florida, when Dunn entered the water.
Authorities said the teens warned Dunn, who walks with a cane, not to enter the water.
"The kids were at the park that day smoking marijuana and apparently saw him walk into the water. He walked in on his own. They were watching him," said Yvonne Martinez, Cocoa Police Department spokesperson.
"(The teens) were telling him they weren't going in after him and that 'you shouldn't have gone in there,'" the spokesperson said.
Even when it became apparent that Dunn was having trouble in the water, none of the boys called 911.
"He started to struggle and scream for help and they just laughed," Martinez said.
As Dunn fights to stay alive, the teens mercilessly taunted him.
"Get out the water, you gonna die," one teen shouted.
Another yelled at Dunn, saying, "ain't nobody fixing to help you, you dumb (expletive)."
When Dunn loses his struggle to stay alive in the water, one of the teens is heard in the video saying: "Oh, he just died."
The entire group is then heard breaking out in laughter.
After the video went viral, a family friend of Dunn notified police.
Police identified and interviewed the five teens involved, and officers said that none expressed remorse when questioned by police.
During one interview, an officer says one of the teens just stared straight ahead and offered 'only a smirk' while the boy's mother cried.
The office of State Attorney Phil Archer determined there was no immediate indication that a crime was committed because state law does not require people give or call for help when someone is in distress. Archer's office said Friday prosecutors will review the entire police file to see if any other criminal violations might apply.
'We're going to give a thorough review to all the evidence,' spokesman Todd Brown said.
Many countries, including Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy and Russia, do have laws requiring people to render aid, even if it means only summoning authorities. And violations in some countries can result in prison time.
But Florida's law is hardly unique across the U.S., legal experts said.
"Generally, throughout the U.S., there is no duty to rescue," said David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice. Still, he added: "It seems like common sense that those kids should have tried to help the guy instead of filming it."
There are some differences in various states, but Weinstein said exceptions typically include required assistance in car crashes; for people in special relationships with others such as police officers, firefighters, teachers, married couples, common carriers such as bus drivers and employers; and if you yourself put the other person in danger in the first place.
Some states, such as Nebraska, require most people - especially professionals - to report suspected child abuse or face possible misdemeanor charges, said attorney Jeffrey Lapin in Lincoln, Nebraska. He agreed the Florida teenagers committed no crime.
"While it is morally and ethically wrong, it is not illegal to not render aid or make extremely despicable comments," Lapin said in an email Friday.
Lapin pointed that in the final episode of the sitcom 'Seinfeld,' the four main characters are convicted of violating a purported city ordinance by failing to assist an overweight man who is getting carjacked - instead joking about the man's large size and doing nothing. The judge character said the four had "callous indifference and utter disregard' for a positive society.
Most U.S. states have no such laws.
There are situations in which U.S. law does require assistance to be rendered. One of those is on the high seas, where federal law requires the "master" of any vessel under U.S. jurisdiction to help anyone "found at sea in danger of being lost," according to the statute.
A 1989 international treaty extends that obligation to mariners around the world.
All 50 states and the District of Columbia also have "Good Samaritan" laws aimed at protecting people from being sued for anything they did while rendering aid or attempting to rescue someone in danger. There are exceptions to those laws as well.