{"id":154204,"date":"2026-02-06T21:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/154204\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T21:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:04:09","slug":"scuba-instructor-arrested-for-12-year-old-north-texas-girls-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/154204\/","title":{"rendered":"Scuba instructor arrested for 12-year-old North Texas girl\u2019s death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" article <\/p>\n

TERRELL, Texas – The man who was leading a North Texas scuba certification class when a 12-year-old girl died last summer is now facing charges.<\/p>\n

Scuba Instructor Arrested \"\" <\/p>\n

William Armstrong (Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office)<\/p>\n

What’s new:<\/p>\n

William Armstrong was arrested on Friday and booked into the Kaufman County jail on an injury to a child charge.<\/p>\n

His bond was set at $150,000.<\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

Armstrong was the instructor for 12-year-old Dylan Harrison\u2019s scuba certification class at The Scuba Ranch in Terrell on Aug. 16, 2025.<\/p>\n

According to witness affidavits obtained by the family’s attorney, there were eight students, an instructor, and a dive master in the class.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

During the class, Dylan went missing. Her body was later found away from the platform at a depth of about 45 feet, according to the family’s attorney.<\/p>\n

The family has questions about why witnesses claimed Armstrong, a Collin County assistant chief deputy, was out of the water and “bone dry” as they began searching for Dylan and why crucial data from dive computers was never collected. One of those dive computers is now lost<\/a>, according to the attorney.<\/p>\n

Armstrong resigned from his position with the Collin County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/a> in October. He was also “permanently suspended” from teaching classes<\/a> at The Scuba Ranch.<\/p>\n

Records obtained by FOX 4 showed that on the day before Harrison\u2019s death, Armstrong worked a full day as a deputy, and then a full overnight security shift<\/a> at an investment firm.<\/p>\n

Family\u2019s Lawsuit \"PREVIOUS <\/p>\n

Big picture view:<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the parents of 12-year-old Dylan Harrison filed a lawsuit against two major scuba agencies, alleging that systemic safety failures led to her drowning during a certification class on Aug. 16, 2025.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit alleges systemic safety failures in the self-regulated industry led to Dylan Harrison’s death at The Scuba Ranch in Terrell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 40-page suit details multiple failures that the lawsuit claims are the result of the scuba diving industry turning a blind eye to safety failures for years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Past coverage <\/p>\n

The Source: FOX 4’s Lori Brown gathered information for this story from the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office, the Harrison family’s attorney, interviews with witnesses and dive experts, and past news coverage.<\/p>\n

Terrell<\/a>Kaufman County<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article TERRELL, Texas – The man who was leading a North Texas scuba certification class when a 12-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1046,6297,223,6302,27,29,28,216,393],"class_list":["post-154204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-kaufman-county","tag-news","tag-terrell","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tx","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}