The “looksmaxxing” influencer and streamer Braden Eric Peters, better known as Clavicular, is facing a misdemeanor charge after video shared online apparently showed him repeatedly shooting an alligator while on an airboat in the Everglades.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office filed the formal charging document against Peters, 20, on April 29.
He faces one count of knowingly discharging a firearm in a public place stemming from the incident on March 26 at a boat dock at the Everglades and Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area, according to the charging document.
In addition to Peters, the State Attorney’s Office filed the same misdemeanor charge against two other men stemming from the same incident — Andrew Morales, 22, an influencer who goes by “The Cuban Tarzan” on social media, and Yabdiel Anibal Cotto Torres, 26.
Video clips posted on social media showed Peters and Morales were among a group of men on an airboat that had stopped near an alligator that did not appear to be moving.
The alligator was dead when the boat came up next to it, Peters’s publicist, Mitchell Jackson, previously told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
“Is it dead?” Peters asked in the video. “So could we shoot it?” A few seconds later, he said, “Let’s test really how dead it is.”
“He just wants to shoot something,” Morales said, video clips posted on X show. “He’s itching.”
Someone out of the camera’s view told Morales, “Well, we’re good. You can pretty much do whatever safely.”
Morales then immediately unholstered a gun from his hip and shot twice at the alligator in the water. Peters then stood up and shot the alligator repeatedly, and Morales joined in again and also shot the animal repeatedly, video posted on X shows.
“Hey, I think it’s dead,” Peters said once he stopped shooting.
Peters relied on guidance from an airboat guide, his lawyers Steven Kramer and Jeffrey Neiman said Wednesday in a written statement to the Sun Sentinel.
“Our client has been summoned to appear for a misdemeanor charge that stems from following the instructions of a licensed airboat guide. … No animals or people were harmed. We are confident that once the full picture is understood, people will see this for what it is,” the statement said.
Morales’ attorney did not respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday. A defense attorney was not yet listed for Torres as of Wednesday evening.
Summonses were issued for the three men on Tuesday. Their arraignments are set for May 20.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission was notified of the videos showing a group of people “recklessly discharging firearms” while on the airboat, said spokesperson Arielle Callender in an email Wednesday evening.
“FWC officers investigated the incident, verified the veracity of the videos and identified the individuals,” Callender said, adding that the three men were each charged with a misdemeanor.
The same night the videos of the shooting appeared online, Peters was arrested in Fort Lauderdale on an unrelated misdemeanor battery charge, stemming from an altercation that Peters allegedly instigated between two women in Osceola County.
Peters is known for his prominence in the “looksmaxxing” subculture, a community of predominantly young men online who set out to improve their physical appearances, sometimes through extreme measures. Peters in a video on his website says he has “spent years mastering the science of male aesthetics,” including by using “pharmacology, extreme methods and protocols people are too scared to even ask about.”
In April, Peters was taken to a hospital after apparently overdosing at a bar in Miami, according to news reports.
Sun Sentinel staff writer Shira Moolten contributed to this report.