Note: all the names of the juveniles below have been changed, except that of the alleged assailant.
Brandon Gray Jr., a 16-year-old resident of Fort Caroline Lane in Palm Coast, faces three juvenile felony charges following the July 30 stabbing with a pocketknife of two boys, both 13, along a trail linking Blairsville Drive in the Woodlands to Palm Coast Parkway. Cell phone video of the stabbing circulated on social media and helped detectives’ investigation.
John, one of the victims, was stabbed three times–in the leg, the hand and the back–and the other, Frank, was stabbed in the abdomen and the leg. Both were taken to Halifax hospital in Daytona Beach. The Sheriff’s Office reported that their injuries were not life-threatening.
An investigation led by Flagler County Sheriff’s detective Adam Gossett and the Major Crimes unit began immediately after both victims and Gray called 911, Gray to say he’d stabbed the two children in self-defense, the alleged victims to say they’d been attacked by Gray. The following is based on Gossett’s investigation, which included interviews with both 13 year olds and a juvenile witness, Lenny, and Gray, among others.
Late Sunday afternoon Lenny was at Gray’s house, where he saw him put Italian seasoning in a baggie–seasoning Gray would later pass off as marijuana. The pair decided to walk to Island Walk to buy a new cell phone for Lenny. When they found the store closed, they kept walking to the Woodlands, getting there by way of a cut-through kids refer to as the “trail.” They walked to John’s house, where John and Frank were playing video games.
Gray knocked on the door. Lenny stayed back, having had some issues with John before. John opened the door. Gray and John had a history of bad blood, too, their last fight taking place at Ralph Carter Park near Rymfire Elementary some two months ago. Gray was trying to sell John some pot for $50 (actually, the seasoning he was passing off as pot). John told him he didn’t have any money. Frank heard them start arguing, he didn’t know hat about. But Gray had told John that they should all “take this to the trail.”
So John and Gray started walking, with Lenny and Frank following behind. As they walked, John and Gray continued arguing, with John trying to find out if Gray had a weapon. Frank would later tell detectives that he told Lenny to start recording on his phone (though later detectives were to locate video of the encounter on John’s phone, not Lenny’s).
Before long, the confrontation between Gray and John became physical. Lenny said John threw a punch. John said all he did was grab Gray’s shoulder with force and turn him around. Frank just saw John fall backward after the argument escalated. Either way, Gray took out a knife and stabbed John in the leg (according to John). Frank ran to help John, only to get stabbed in the abdomen and the leg before he ran away. John tried to hold Gray’s armed hand down, but Gray pulled off, slashing John’s hand and stabbing John a third time in the back as he was running away.
In Gray’s interview with detectives, Gray initially claimed John and Frank randomly attacked him, but then conceded that he’d gone to John’s house to sell him a combination of pot and Italian seasoning. When John told him he didn’t have money, Gray said he and Lenny left, but were umped by John and Frank along the trail, and when Gray saw John attack Lenny, Gray came to Lenny’s defense–with the pocketknife. He said that’s when he stabbed both 13 year olds. But he insisted it was all self-defense.
The next day, fragmented video of the assault began surfacing on SnapChat, showing Frank running away after he was stabbed and capturing Gray stabbing John. Detectives located the video on Frank’s phone. Detectives then determined that Gray had been the aggressor. A judge signed a warrant today, and Gray was arrested at his home in the F Section. A deputy at one point edged him around a patrol car so his younger siblings, who were looking out a window, wouldn;t see him in handcuffs.
“You’re still a juvenile at the end of the day. Whatever happens when you turn 18, this is significantly worse,” Gossett is seen and heard telling Gray in a brief body cam video the Sheriff’s Office released today. “That being said, I’m not going to be your parent. I know they’re going to try to do what they can. But your choices are your choices. You understand what I’m saying? In the future, you need to start making rational decisions.” Gray is not easily audible, but appears to mumble something about who he was with. “You are who your friends are, and that is 100 percent through life,” Gossett tells him.
“You’re the big brother of those little girls and they’re going to look up to you so you need to make sure you things right even if it doesn’t benefit you.”
Gray was then placed in the patrol car. He was taken to the county jail for processing, pending a decision from the Department of Juvenile Justice, which either detains juveniles–especially when they have been charged with a violent crime–or remands them to their parents’ custody pending court proceedings. Gray is charged with two counts of Aggravated Battery with a Deadly Weapon (one count for each juvenile victim) and the use or display of a weapon during a felony.
“Like Detective Gossett tells Gray in the video, kids become who they hang out with,” said Sheriff Rick Staly. “Committing a crime by selling a mixture of Italian seasoning and illegal weed is a recipe for disaster and escalating violence as we saw in this case. Parents, be the Sheriff in your home and know who your kids are hanging out with and what they are doing, so they don’t make life-changing mistakes at a young age.”
Removing rights one by one says
This is what happens when politicians take away the right to punish your children…. The Left in all its Glory.
Bill Boots says
This is also what happens when the government pays people to have babies so they qualify for various entitlements……..
Deborah Coffey says
What happens when the Right in all its Glory kills pregnant women, causes trans youth to commit suicide, lies about Black history, praises White Supremacists (otherwise known as Nazis), and finally tries to take over the United States government at its Capitol on January 6th…where the Right in all its Glory defecated on the floors?
RSmoker says
Go home Deborah.. you’re drunk
dave says
I say put his parents in jail with him.
gary trainor says
I’m not shocked by this I live on Fort Caroline this family has been a problem for everyone on the street from there rundown house with junk cars in the yard to speeding motorcycles to a full size pig they had in the pool (no water)
I feel sorry for the little kids that live there.
On the trail says
Jesus Christ This Trail runs behind my house on Blairsville Dr, I rode a bike to the racetrack gas station for coffee on Palm Coast Pkwy one morning recently and noticed “hail satan” and other graphiti on the pavement? This is a sidewalk trail like only 100 yards long, from the 90 degree curve on Blairsville to the intersection of Florida park and PC Pkway. it is met halfway by a dirt path along a power line trail and canal behind my house, Since I installed a hot tub out back Ive noticed some traffic of kids this age along the path. I have an 11 year old daughter who last year was first 6 grade class to attend Middle school, Im thinking time to move These young woke Goth wannabe teens on my daughter’s middle school bus act pretty wild for my taste.
Deborah Coffey says
Get a grip! The Goths are not woke. Lots of them are Christians and Republicans! It’s tiring having to write TRUTH on here on a daily basis.
https://www.everydayhealth.com/kids-health/understanding-your-gothic-teen/
Wake up and smell the Coffey Deb says
No self respecting Republican is letting their kid out the house to school in blacked out eye makeup and chains looking like an Antifuck terrorrist or whatever these Dousche Nozzle anarchists are calling themselves these days. I can smell a kid with liberal pot smoking loser parents who don’t care a mile away.
BL Local says
I reported the graffiti to the City & was sold it is private property and I could be arrested for trespassing!! I even sent them pictures. Since the City was no help, I mailed the pics and a letter to the property owner…
Where the sidewalk ends says
Isn’t the sidewalk an easement? I’m pretty sure it’s an easement, and if it is, you’re not trespassing if you’re on the sidewalk. You can walk in your neighbors swale, it’s an easement, you’re not trespassing, but you might look really odd. Am I wrong?
TR says
These idiots want to act like adults and try to be tough. They should be treated as such. Post their names and faces from their mugshots and then arrest the parents being they have got to be as stupid. Family traits are taught as they grow. How about allowing someone a little older that the victims be able to take the criminal behind a wood shed and teach him a lesson. Then when the older teen gets out from there, just slap him on the wrist and say “don’t do that again” That’s basically what our justices system does with most minors. Granted none of these kids should have been there, but they didn’t deserve to be stabbed.
God help this country because it’s going down the drain really fast and it something major isn’t going to be done about it now, we are all screwed. Lock and Load and get ready people.
Atwp says
No guns used thank God. The bad gun laws we have will allow a person his age to shoot at will. People brace yourself for deadly violence. The world we live in.
JP says
What law allows a 16 year old to shoot someone at will? Genuinely curious.
Atwp says
Jp the law of stealing and shooting.
Deborah Coffey says
The law that freely puts guns in his hands…without even a permit.
TR says
Wrong unless he steals it. No one can purchase a gun legally without a back round check, and you still have to carry it concealed. But you do not have to have a permit to carry it. Get your facts straight, the only thing the new law removed was having to have a piece of paper on you saying you can carry a concealed weapon. Besides do you really think that any criminal will go through the proper channels to by a gun legally? They didn’t before the new law and they will not do it now.
Chris d says
And i was told to move here the area was so great! Big mistake, the more im seeing this area is as bad if not worse than Jacksonville!
Hmmm says
Palm Coast worse than Jacksonville!!!🤣
Pull up news4jax right now. Where did you exaggerating people come from?
blondee says
His momma must be so proud!
ASF says
I can only hope this 16 year old will not be released into the custody of his parents or former guardian(s.) If memory serves, there was a bulletin issued in 2022 to be on the look-out for this same kid.
Concerned Citizen says
You all are blaming everyone and getting mad at every body but the persons responsible.
Brandon decided to try and sell fake weed. He got called out and his two just as guilty buyers wanted to fight. He then decided he couldn’t fight fare. And brought a weapon into the mix. From the time he decided he wanted to sell fake weed to pulling a knife he was knowingly breaking the law. And making adult decisions. Therefor all 3 in this incident need to be charged. And Brandon needs to be charged as a violent adult offender.
There comes a point and time where you can’t blame parents, social media or the neighborhood. Brandon is responsible for his choices. As are his two buyers. They should be charged and sentenced accordingly. But they won’t. There should also be some sort of responsibility for all 3 to reimburse the county for expenses and time spent investigating.
Jim says
Well said. Blaming Republicans or Democrats, Goth and LGTBQ…, gun laws or any of the other wild comments I’ve read in this string is a curious response to this situation. Unless you know his parents and know they did a poor job raising him, be careful what you say. I’m not defending them but none of us know the truth. Concerned Citizen hit the nail on the head. The kid is responsible for his actions and so are the two boys who were “buyers”.
And if you think this area is so bad, by all means move somewhere else. But don’t be shocked when the same things happen wherever you go. But you can sure try….
Brian says
Gotta watch out for these hardened Palm Coast criminals!
JimboXYZ says
Kid is a fraud (fake weed) & drug dealer at the very least, with stabbings he didn’t have access to a gun. He should be a felon at this point 7 that should preclude him from legally owning a gun as an adult. This is where he is at age 16. When someone shows you who they are, believe them. He’s not getting any better.
Concern says
This story could have been so much worse that no one has pointed to. The stabbings could have hit major arteries and would have bled out.
From here it is up to the State Attorney to decide the punishment not us in the comments. We do not know the parents of these boys. Now days both parents have to work and not aware what are going through kids minds.
The Detective was right in regards on what he is educating this young man. It is time to make good choices because if he was 18 the charges would be very severe.
JimBo says
OK, I’ll go ahead and say it: “Let’s go Brandon!” All the way to Raiford!
lenny says
this is very wrong he went to sell it then they wanted to fight then lenny and brandon walked away then the 2 that got stabed went through there house to the trail arugeing with brandon and then john threw a punch on brandon then brandon stabed him in self defence then the other kid ran in hiting him then he got stabed i was there and brandon was in fear for his life beacuse they have jumped and robed him before and broken his collor bone this whole artical is wrong and all of you want to say all of this stuf about him but hes a 16yr that has mental issues and that was in fear for his life