{"id":311172,"date":"2026-06-18T00:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T00:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/311172\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T00:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T00:43:08","slug":"this-is-a-first-fort-pierce-teen-killed-in-shooting-after-alleged-instagram-firearm-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/311172\/","title":{"rendered":"‘This is a first’: Fort Pierce teen killed in shooting after alleged Instagram firearm exchange"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA 16-year-old boy in Fort Pierce died following a shooting that police believe stemmed from an Instagram-arranged firearm exchange, with another teen in custody and two others questioned. The shooting occurred on June 11 near Avenue N and North 23rd Street. Law enforcement officers heard gunshots in the area and found 16-year-old Kevin Searles of Fort Pierce shot at the scene. Police also saw three juveniles running in different directions. Searles died days later from his injuries. Investigators believe the teens communicated on Instagram before meeting up to exchange firearms. Your neighborhood: Local coverage from WPBF 25 News\u201cThis is a first for me to hear they are using this to exchange firearms; I never heard that before. This is a new one, which is why we are taking our time to ensure that was in fact why they were there and it wasn\u2019t for something different,\u201d Fort Pierce police Maj. Michael Santiago said. Fort Pierce community activist Reggie Sessions expressed concern about the role of social media with teenagers. \u201cBut now a lot of problems are generated from social media,\u201d Sessions said. Police recovered two guns at the scene but said evidence shows only one of the weapons was fired. They added there is no indication of an exchange of gunfire. \u201cWhat we discovered was the victim at the time had a weapon on him, and we identified and located another weapon that was possibly used in the shooting not so far away from that particular scene where the other juveniles were seen running from,\u201d Santiago said. Officials said the investigation is ongoing.Stay up-to-date: The latest headlines and weather from WPBF 25\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tFORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

A 16-year-old boy in Fort Pierce died following a shooting that police believe stemmed from an Instagram-arranged firearm exchange, with another teen in custody and two others questioned. <\/p>\n

The shooting occurred on June 11 near Avenue N and North 23rd Street. Law enforcement officers heard gunshots in the area and found 16-year-old Kevin Searles of Fort Pierce shot at the scene. <\/p>\n

Police also saw three juveniles running in different directions. Searles died days later from his injuries. <\/p>\n

Investigators believe the teens communicated on Instagram before meeting up to exchange firearms. <\/p>\n

Your neighborhood: Local coverage from WPBF 25 News<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a first for me to hear they are using this to exchange firearms; I never heard that before. This is a new one, which is why we are taking our time to ensure that was in fact why they were there and it wasn\u2019t for something different,\u201d Fort Pierce police Maj. Michael Santiago said. <\/p>\n

Fort Pierce community activist Reggie Sessions expressed concern about the role of social media with teenagers. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut now a lot of problems are generated from social media,\u201d Sessions said. <\/p>\n

Police recovered two guns at the scene but said evidence shows only one of the weapons was fired. They added there is no indication of an exchange of gunfire. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we discovered was the victim at the time had a weapon on him, and we identified and located another weapon that was possibly used in the shooting not so far away from that particular scene where the other juveniles were seen running from,\u201d Santiago said. <\/p>\n

Officials said the investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n

Stay up-to-date: The latest headlines and weather from WPBF 25<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 16-year-old boy in Fort Pierce died following a shooting that police believe stemmed from an Instagram-arranged firearm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2443,129170,129727,28,129728,26950,129730,1962,129729,27909,75083,1933,129731,132,171,173,172,725,215,21275,40963,2393,25411,189],"class_list":["post-311172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-angela-rozier","tag-different-direction","tag-firearm-exchange","tag-florida","tag-fort-pierce-teen","tag-instagram","tag-instagram-firearm-exchange","tag-juvenile","tag-kevin-searles","tag-law-enforcement-officer","tag-michael-santiago","tag-murder","tag-north-23rd-street","tag-police","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-scene","tag-shooting","tag-social-medium","tag-teenager","tag-time","tag-weapon","tag-wpbf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}