Florida Sheriff Posts Mug Shot of 9-Year-Old After Knife Incident
A 9-year-old student was arrested after deputies say he brought a pocketknife to elementary school and threatened classmates. The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office booked the child and then shared his mug shot and name on its Facebook page. The post exploded into tens of thousands of responses and a heated debate over whether juvenile arrests should be public.
According to deputies, the episode happened during recess at Middleton-Burney Elementary in Crescent City. One student told officers the suspect pulled a pocketknife from his backpack, said he was going to stab him, and ran to a teacher. Other classmates reported the child showed or brandished the blade and told peers not to tell staff.
One victim said the boy tapped him on the shoulder and then held an open knife, so the child ran and fell. A student told deputies the suspect walked over to her, showed a blade, and asked her not to tell. The student added that the suspect walked over to another child and “flicked open the knife” and pointed it at the child’s stomach, and authorities said that victim could not be identified.
Deputies arrested the nine-year-old and charged him with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill. He was booked, then released to a parent to await a court date. Investigators said the case will proceed through juvenile court.
Posting the child’s photo and name on social media is a policy the sheriff’s office says it has followed since 2018. The agency has defended the practice and says it has cut repeat offenses since the rule began. Still, the decision to publish a nine-year-old’s image drew roughly 48,000 comments and intense criticism.
- “I don’t agree with this at all,” one commenter said. “While I absolutely do not support his behavior or bringing a weapon to school, this is still a 9-year-old child. Arresting him, taking a mugshot, and publicly posting it like this can cause lasting psychological harm. At this age, the focus should be on intervention, counseling, and protection, not criminalizing him in a way that could follow him for life. There should be statutes in place to protect children this young, this feels more like trauma and child abuse than justice.”
- “Posting a 9 YEAR OLD’S mugshot?!” another commenter exclaimed.
- “Yeah. I’m all about shaming criminals. But that’s a little far,” another commenter noted. “He’s still a baby and needs guidance not [shame]. That will only reinforce forms of hate and mistrust. Post his parents and get him help and positive encouragement.”
- “Since when does law enforcement [show] pictures of a 9 yr. old child and [give] their name?” another commenter wondered. “What the child did I’m not condoning, but still he’s a very young child.”
The sheriff’s office said it will not remove the post and that the policy dates to 2018. “We have not had any repeat offenders since we have put this in place,” Allison Merritt with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said.
The agency had also posted a 10-year-old’s mug shot a week earlier for a similar incident, officials said. That case involved a child accused of bringing a pocketknife and threatening another student, the agency said.
Under state law, juvenile names, photos and arrest reports can be released when felonies are involved, but families can ask for images to be taken down. If owners fail to comply within ten days, posters risk civil penalties. The legal patchwork has fueled the public reaction.
“Just because we can post a mug shot of a 9-year-old doesn’t mean we should,” attorney Shannon Schott, a legal expert in juvenile law, said.
“The juvenile justice system really is intended to keep things behind closed doors so a family can privately heal and move forward and help their child move forward,” she told WTSP. “It’s really just a conflict between the way the sheriff thinks that things should be done and how the system actually works.”
