![\"Rachael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790301379_987_b339052e-259c-4396-947d-bf50a31013d8_1772484533.file.png\")
<\/a>INDIANTOWN, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\nA confrontation between teenagers at an Indiantown school bus stop escalated into a man pulling a gun on two teens, according to a Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Office report.<\/p>\n
The incident happened Friday morning near Southwest 174th Court and Southwest 175th Court as students were preparing to board a bus headed to South Fork High School.<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office ultimately determined that no criminal charges would be filed as investigators believe the man who displayed the gun was legally allowed to defend himself under Florida\u2019s Stand Your Ground Law. <\/p>\n
What happened?<\/p>\n
Sheriff John Budensiek said detectives spent the entire day Friday investigating the incident, interviewing students who were on the bus and the people involved.<\/p>\n
He said the investigation found the father had gone to the bus stop after his 16-year-old son reported being bullied by a 14-year-old student on the bus the day before.<\/p>\n
“The misinformation is of zero value. Actually, it’s counterproductive to the safety of our citizens of Martin County,” Budensiek said. <\/p>\n
According to the sheriff, the initial dispute happened Thursday when the 16-year-old got on the bus carrying a pizza.<\/p>\n
Budensiek said a 14-year-old student began asking the teen for pizza, eventually threatening him and hitting him in the head after he refused to give him some.<\/p>\n
The 16-year-old then went home and told his father what happened.<\/p>\n
Budensiek said the father returned to the bus stop that afternoon and spoke with the female bus driver, who told him she would try to address the situation.<\/p>\n
Confrontation at the bus stop<\/p>\n
The next morning, on Friday, the father drove his son to the bus stop.<\/p>\n
Budensiek said the 14-year-old involved in the previous day’s incident was already on the bus when they arrived.<\/p>\n
As the 16-year-old got on the bus, his father began speaking with the driver again.<\/p>\n
According to the sheriff, that is when the 14-year-old got off the bus and confronted the father.<\/p>\n
“Now you have students on the bus that are yelling. You have the 14-year-old boy that came off the bus that’s yelling, screaming at the dad,” Budensiek said.<\/p>\n
Budensiek said other students on the bus then called another teenager to come to the scene.<\/p>\n
There were actually two 16-year-olds involved, according to the sheriff: the father’s son, whom he described as the victim, and another 16-year-old who was already suspended from school and was not on the bus that morning.<\/p>\n
That second 16-year-old came to the bus stop after being summoned by students on the bus, Budensiek said.<\/p>\n
“So now you have two young men who look like grown men that are happening upon the dad, going at the dad and yelling at the dad,” Budensiek said.<\/p>\n
The sheriff said the father initially held his hand up and repeatedly told the teenagers to stay back.<\/p>\n
“They got all the way up on him before he pulled out a concealed weapon and told them to get back, which he’s legally allowed to do,” Budensiek said.<\/p>\n
He said both teenagers backed away, the father put the gun away and the confrontation ended.<\/p>\n
The father then drove around the corner, flagged down a deputy and immediately explained what had happened.<\/p>\n
“Dad puts the gun away. Dad drives right around the corner, flags down a deputy, says, ‘This is what happened, this is what I did, this is why I did it,'” Budensiek said.<\/p>\n
No criminal charges<\/p>\n
Budensiek said detectives interviewed students who witnessed the incident, including students on the bus and the two teenagers who approached the father.<\/p>\n
He said investigators found the accounts were consistent.<\/p>\n
“Everybody said the consistent story,” Budensiek said.<\/p>\n
The sheriff said investigators would have sought warrants for the 14-year-old and the other 16-year-old who approached the father if the father had wanted to pursue charges.<\/p>\n
But he declined.<\/p>\n
“We would have filed for warrants on the 14-year-old and the 16-year-old that went after the dad, except for the fact that the dad did not want to press charges,” Budensiek said.<\/p>\n
The sheriff said the father’s actions may not have been how he would have handled it, but investigators determined he did not break the law.<\/p>\n
“While it may not have been how I would have handled it, [he] did not do anything illegal. You are allowed to stand your ground whether the person coming after you is 16 or 24 or 34,” Budensiek said.<\/p>\n
Budensiek also said the father is a security guard and was legally carrying a concealed firearm.<\/p>\n
“He was wearing a badge. It’s my understanding that he was a security guard and was carrying the gun,” Budensiek said. <\/p>\n
He emphasized that the weapon was concealed before the confrontation. <\/p>\n
Budensiek said the father has since pulled his son out of school and plans to homeschool him.<\/p>\n
“He just was going to protect himself and his son at all costs,” the sheriff said.<\/p>\n
Teenagers dispute sheriff’s account<\/p>\n
The two teenagers who were in the video told WPBF 25 News a different version of what happened, disputing the sheriff\u2019s narrative and saying they were frightened when the gun was pointed at them.<\/p>\n
RJ McIntyre and Trevor Ivory spoke with WPBF 25 News about what they say happened. <\/p>\n
McIntyre said he was walking to the bus stop Friday morning when someone called him and told him there was “an old man here looking for you.”<\/p>\n
He said that when he got closer, he saw the man near the bus. McIntyre said he boarded the bus and noticed the father pointing toward him through the window.<\/p>\n
He said a back-and-forth exchange then began between him and the father’s son, who had been involved in the pizza dispute the previous day.<\/p>\n
McIntyre said the bus driver eventually told both teenagers they needed to get off the bus.<\/p>\n
He said they dropped their backpacks and appeared ready to fight. <\/p>\n
“We dropped our backpacks. We’re about to fight,” McIntyre said, recalling the confrontation.<\/p>\n
Ivory said he was not originally at the bus stop but received a call from his younger brother.<\/p>\n
“My brother called me and he was like, ‘There’s a grown men at the bus stop. He’s looking for somebody,'” Ivory said. <\/p>\n
Ivory said he went to the bus stop because he felt responsible for his younger brother.<\/p>\n
“I’m supposed to look after him,” Ivory said.<\/p>\n
He said he spoke with the adult man before the teenagers got off the bus.<\/p>\n
“I was like, ‘What’s up with you? Like, who are you looking for?'” Ivory said.<\/p>\n
He said he eventually saw McIntyre and the man’s son come off the bus. He said he could tell they were fighting and told the man to give them space. <\/p>\n
“I’m telling the dad, I’m like, ‘No, just let them two fade,'” Ivory said. <\/p>\n
Seconds later, Ivory said a gun was drawn. <\/p>\n
“And the next thing you know, he put his son behind him, and he pulled a gun out on us,” he told WPBF. <\/p>\n
McIntyre said he remembers what was going through his head when he saw the gun. <\/p>\n
“I can’t process anything. I’m just like, am I going to make it home? It’s life or death right now. It’s a gun,” McIntyre said. <\/p>\n
McIntyre said he grew up in the area and had never experienced anything like it. <\/p>\n
Ivory said he was also stunned.<\/p>\n
“In the moment, I was just like, it’s crazy,” Ivory said.<\/p>\n
Both teens put their hands up as they backed away. <\/p>\n
The dispute the day before<\/p>\n
McIntyre acknowledged he had interacted with the other student the previous day, but disputed the sheriff’s characterization of that interaction as bullying.<\/p>\n
He said the encounter started when the other teen brought pizza onto the bus. McIntyre said he asked if he could buy a slice for a dollar. Instead, he said, the other student responded disrespectfully.<\/p>\n
“He screamed in my face,” McIntyre said.<\/p>\n
McIntyre said he continued trying to talk to the student about the interaction during the ride home.<\/p>\n
He acknowledged that he used profanity and said he could have handled the situation differently.<\/p>\n
“I take accountability. I think, like, when I was asking for pizza and he told me, you know, the first time, I think I should have left it there,” McIntyre said. <\/p>\n
Questions over the gun<\/p>\n
The teenagers said they believe the father should be held accountable for bringing a firearm to the bus stop.<\/p>\n
McIntyre said the presence of the gun was particularly concerning because there were other children nearby.<\/p>\n
“I feel like under any circumstance, however you felt, no firearms should be displayed at a bus stop where there’s a bunch of kids on a bus looking forward to going to school,” McIntyre said.<\/p>\n
He said students on the bus could be heard reacting to the incident.<\/p>\n
“As you all can hear in the video, ‘Oh Lord, please Lord, I hope they don’t get shot,'” McIntyre said. <\/p>\n
The sheriff, however, said the father did not pull the gun until after the teenagers had approached him despite repeated warnings to stay back. <\/p>\n
He said the incident would not have happened if the 14-year-old had remained on the bus.<\/p>\n
“If he had stayed on the bus and kept his mouth shut and everybody had not called the other friend over there, there would have been no issues,” Budensiek said.<\/p>\n
Sheriff blasts social media video<\/p>\n
The sheriff also criticized the spread of a partial video of the confrontation on social media.<\/p>\n
He said the video did not show the entire context leading up to the firearm being displayed.<\/p>\n
“There was a video that was put out on social media that was a half of a video and a half of a fraction of the story that actually took place and that grew legs and got spread around, and that’s extremely counterproductive,” he said.<\/p>\n
Budensiek said the social media posts created confusion in the community and questioned the work of investigators.<\/p>\n
“It unsettles the community. It undermines our law enforcement job that we’re out there investigating it,” Budensiek told WPBF.<\/p>\n
The sheriff said his agency conducted a thorough investigation and would have arrested the two teenagers if the father had wanted to press charges.<\/p>\n
“We did a thorough investigation, and you are allowed to stand your ground,” Budensiek said.<\/p>\n
Now what? <\/p>\n
The sheriff ultimately characterized the father as the victim in the incident and said there will be no criminal charges.<\/p>\n
“To recap it, the individual with the gun was the victim in this case,” Budensiek said.<\/p>\n
He said the father has since taken his son out of school to be homeschooled. <\/p>\n
“He did not want to press charges. He just wants to be left alone. He wants his son to be left alone,” he said.<\/p>\n
McIntyre and Ivory, meanwhile, maintain they were not the aggressors and question why the father came to their bus stop armed. <\/p>\n
This is a developing story.<\/p>\n