Boater arrested after fatal attack on spearfisherman in July

Nearly three months after a boating accident off Bahia Honda State Park over the Fourth of July weekend resulted in the death of a spearfisherman, authorities with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) have arrested the man they believe was responsible and the 72-year-old arrested -Old Palmer Reid Long Jr. of Placida, Florida, and charged him with ship's murder on September 23.

According to Long's FWC arrest warrant, eyewitnesses aboard the victim's boat, as well as passersby on another boat who spotted 56-year-old victim Israel Boza's body floating in the water, say Long's 32-foot Contender vessel was the only boat He was traveling at high speeds through the area when Boza was killed and likely died within minutes from injuries to his head, abdomen, thigh and leg caused by a high-speed propeller attack.

In July, a screenshot of GoPro footage captured in the water by Boza's fellow snorkeler and posted to social media quickly identified Long's vessel at his Key Colony Beach residence. Other stills from the same footage show Long's vessel traveling through the area where Boza was swimming and being in the water within about 30 feet of the cameraman, FWC investigator Glen Wray wrote in the warrant.

Other images, Wray said, showed Long appearing to look directly at the other occupants of Boza's boat and the cameraman in the water, acknowledging the latter as he warned Long with hand signals but continued driving without slowing down or changing course .

Although Long's boat was the only one of the three vessels mentioned in the warrant whose GPS was not active at the time of Boza's death, Wray wrote that based on a waypoint created in Long's boat's GPS in the minutes before the attack, as well as a second waypoint, created on Long's passenger's phone 12 minutes later and 9.8 miles away, “it can be concluded that (Long's boat) was traveling at approximately 49 miles per hour on the return trip to Mr. Long's residence.”

A projected direct route from Long's boat's final location to the entrance to the Key Colony Beach canals “showed him traveling directly through the diving area,” Wray wrote.

Early reports after the incident questioned the display of a diving flag aboard Boza's boat, an element addressed in Long's arrest warrant. Still images from GoPro confirm, and the report admits, that while an appropriately sized flag was displayed, it did not have the required stiffening pole and was displayed from the pole holders behind the driver's seat, not from the legally required highest point of the vessel.

However, the warrant says the flag should have been clearly visible as Long's boat approached Boza's from the stern, and wind conditions on the day of the attack caused the flag to unfurl naturally.

“Mr. Knowingly and intentionally operated (his boat) for a long period of time without a proper lookout and at an unsafe speed with known hazards in the area and should have reasonably known that driving… through a diving area with multiple swimmers in the water would likely result in death or personal injury others in the water.”

Under Florida law, marine homicide is a second-degree felony, elevated to a first-degree felony if the perpetrator knew or should have known that an accident had occurred and failed to render aid to the victim.

The Keys Weekly contacted Long's attorney, Hal Schuhmacher, by phone for comment on the arrest but did not receive comment before press time.