West Martello Drone Attack Update

 

By Rick Boettger

 

As reported recently in the Konk Life Blast, a small drone helicopter dropped on fireworks spectators in the West Martello fort at the end of the Fourth of July fireworks display. One man was injured, and police failed to respond to repeated calls. Questions as of Saturday included: Are drones over the fireworks legal? What happens when they cause injury? And where were our police when citizens asked for help?

Most of the answers are in. In general, drone visual recordings are legal if the operator is registered with the Federal Aviation Administration and are insured. Consultation with the FAA and contacting the drone’s operator are in progress. The main question is, why did the drone operator not turn off the drone’s whirring propellers when he saw it had landed on spectators?

The injured man is ex-military. Visiting the Miami VA on an unrelated matter, he was given antibiotics for possible infections, but was told that indeed he had not needed stitches for his cuts. His evaluation: “A mere flesh wound. I’m not pressing charges.”

A police officer was in fact dispatched to the drone attack. But when the officer arrived, he saw a man passed out in his car, directly in his headlights where he parked near the gates to West Martello. So he changed his mission to investigating what ended up as a DUI arrest. His report states the engine was running, and the passenger was trying to use the car’s GPS system to find an address, implying the impaired driver intended to drive.

A second officer was dispatched to the drone attack, but the first officer stopped her and asked her to change her mission as well to helping him with the DUI until the DUI specialist arrived, and that is what she did.

Meanwhile, the spectators at West Martello cautiously approached the officers, asking them for help with the drone and its operator, but did not want to interrupt the officers in the performance of their duties. The officers ignored the spectators, who, after waiting in vain for an hour, finally gave up and went home, puzzled. The drone operator, who was still present when the officer arrived, managed to snag his drone through the locked gates and escape, leaving only the drone’s battery.

An unexpected question is a statement on the night’s “Computer Aided Dispatch Call Summary.” It states that the “Suspicious incident” regarding the drone was disposed as “GOA (GONE ON ARRIVAL.)” This was patently untrue, as can be attested by a dozen solid citizens in place at the gates where the officers were parked, pointedly ignoring their polite inquiries.

This leads to two final questions, which we will be investigating for future reports. The first is why the KWPD department does not have a disposition category called something like “MC—(MISSION CHANGED),” instead of a false statement like GOA.

The second question is why neither of the officers would take ten seconds to tell the West Martello people on whom the drone had landed that they were simply not going to be attended to, because the officers saw a greater danger. Then they all could have gone home a half hour earlier, satisfied with the department’s judgment, instead of wondering where they had been.

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