A 16-year-old boy is facing first-degree murder and other charges after he beat another teen to death with a baseball bat on Monday near a mobile-home park in Lake Wales, Fla., according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
The suspect called 911 shortly before 2 p.m. to report the beating, Sheriff’s Office spokesman Brian Bruchey said.
Bruchey said the suspect and victim, 15-year-old Giovanni Diaz, went to the woods near the mobile-home park on Caloosa Boulevard to play baseball.
The boy told deputies he beat Giovanni with a baseball bat. Bruchey said deputies are still investigating a possible motive.
Deputies took the suspect into custody. Besides the murder charge, he is charged with possession of marijuana less than 20 grams and possession of drug paraphernalia.
The Orlando Sentinel typically does not name juvenile suspects.
“This child was brutally murdered by a 16-year-old with a baseball bat,” Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement. “There is no reasonable excuse for this. Zero. None. It should never have happened.”
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