A Boca Raton beach lifeguard was attacked Monday by a man designated as a career criminal by the State of Florida. The city police blotter places the attack at Lifeguard Tower 6 (above) at the north end of South Beach Park near NE 4th Street.
Per the blotter, Arthur Kennedy Gates (55) battered a lifeguard inside Tower 6. When police arrived on the scene Gates attacked them. He was subdued with the use of a Taser, medically cleared, and then taken to the Palm Beach County Jail. Charges filed from the incident are burglary with battery, battery on a police officer, and resisting with violence. He remains in custody at this writing with bond set at $10,000. In light of a reader comment we note that there is no charge for causing injury, so we are hopeful that the lifeguard is okay.
Arthur Gates is listed by FDLE as a habitual violent felony offender.
While we found no history for Mr. Gates in Palm Beach County, we found seven cases in Broward, including felonies in 1979 (battery on police officer), 1992 (robbery), and his career felony cases from 1995. The 1995 charges look particularly troubling, including: Aggravated assault, sexual battery on a child under 11, kidnapping, and … wait for it … attempted murder in the first degree. We should note that despite the sexual battery on a child charge, he is not listed as a sex offender by FDLE. That charge may have been dropped. However, his career offender record indicates he was adjudicated guilty of attempted murder.
More recently he was charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm in March of 2013. Somehow that didn’t stop him from getting out in time to face two municipal ordinance violation charges in September (trespassing) and November (open container).
Gates appeared in front of Judge Crow on Tuesday and is scheduled to appear again on Thursday.
Readers might wonder what we’re wondering: How is this guy out?
Update: Per a reader comment on Facebook, we have been told the following.
Hi. I found out exactly what happened through my son’s junior lifeguard captain. The lifeguard, Brendan, is totally fine. The bad guy tried to climb the lifeguard tower. When Brendan tried to stop him, the guy put Brendan in a headlock. Then he tried to punch Brendan. Brendan was able to restrain him. Then the cops came. Brendan decided not to press charges. He felt bad for the guy because he was homeless.
Then the guy attempted to punch one of the cops. He was then arrested. The cops say that the homeless people have been doing things like this to try to get arrested on purpose to get out of the heat, into somewhere air conditioned and with food. That is why when the guy saw that he wasn’t going to be arrested at first, he then had to go after the cop. Crazy, right?
Anyway, funny thing is that I realized after hearing Brendan’s full name and age, that we went to grade school and high school together!! So funny! I told the captain that some people on Facebook were concerned about him and he promised to pass along everyones’s well wishes.
Note: Normally we try to stick closer to West Boca with our coverage. However we feel the facts here are particularly serious. Also, we go to South Beach Park ourselves and know that other West Boca residents go there. It is the one beach where non-city residents can get parking permits.
