![\"Mugshot](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/000-comments-details-walker-allegedly-113511508.jpg\")
The 9-year-old was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill. Putnam County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\nDeputies in Florida have published a 9-year-old boy\u2019s name and mug shot online, sparking swift and furious debate.<\/p>\n
The unblurred picture of the child, who was arrested for allegedly threatening a classmate with a knife, was shared on Facebook by the Putnam County Sheriff\u2019s Office on Friday in a viral post that garnered nearly 50,000 comments and counting.<\/p>\n
The boy was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill following Thursday\u2019s alleged incident at a Crescent City elementary school.<\/p>\n
The 9-year-old was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill. Putnam County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n
The post detailed how the boy allegedly brought a pocketknife to school before getting into a fight with a classmate and later threatening multiple students.<\/p>\n
But the decision to share the child\u2019s name and photo online was condemned by the majority of the commenters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile I absolutely do not support his behavior or bringing a weapon to school, this is still a 9-year-old child. Arresting him, taking a mug shot, and publicly posting it like this can cause lasting psychological harm,\u201d one Facebook user wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince when does law enforcement show pictures of a 9-year-old child and give their name? I\u2019m not condoning what the child did, but still, he\u2019s a very young child,\u201d a second wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cY\u2019all really posted this baby picture like this,\u201d raged a third.<\/p>\n
Despite the backlash, the Putnam County Sheriff\u2019s Office says it publishes juvenile mug shots for felony charges for safety and deterrence reasons.<\/p>\n
![\"Portrait](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/000-comments-details-walker-allegedly-113511500.jpg\")
Putnam County Sheriff, H.D. \u201cGator\u201d DeLoach did not respond to requests for comment after his office posted the controversial mugshot of the 9-year-old. Putnam County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n
Florida juveniles charged with felonies are not protected by confidentiality under state Statute 985.04.<\/p>\n
That means their names, photos and arrest reports can legally be released.<\/p>\n
Families have the right to request a takedown of the photo, and agencies can face civil penalties if they fail to comply.<\/p>\n
The Putnam County Sheriff\u2019s Office said the decision to name and photograph the boy follows a policy upheld since 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not had any repeat offenders since we have put this in place. Our parents are aware of the children that their students are hanging out with. They\u2019re aware of what is going on in their schools, and we are going to continue that to maintain the safety of our children and staff at all the Putnam County schools,\u201d PCSO public information officer Allison Merritt\u00a0told WTSP<\/a>.<\/p>\n Putnam County Sheriff, H.D. \u201cGator\u201d DeLoach, did not respond to requests for comment from The Post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deputies in Florida have published a 9-year-old boy\u2019s name and mug shot online, sparking swift and furious debate.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4864,265,28,30,29,6853,4278],"class_list":["post-6223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-arrests","tag-crime","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-mugshots","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6223","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=6223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}