BOAT DRIVER ARRESTED AFTER FATAL JULY STRIKE ON SPEAR FISHERMAN

Nearly three months after a boat strike off Bahia Honda State Park over the Fourth of July weekend proved fatal for a spear fisherman, authorities with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) have apprehended the man they say is responsible, arresting 72-year-old Placida, Florida resident Palmer Reid Long Jr. and charging him with vessel homicide on Sept. 23.

According to Long’s FWC arrest warrant, eyewitnesses aboard the victim’s boat, as well as bystanders on another boat who discovered 56-year-old victim Israel Boza’s body floating in the water, say Long’s 32-foot Contender vessel was the only boat traveling at a high rate of speed through the area when Boza was killed, likely dying within minutes from injuries to his head, abdomen, thigh and leg consistent with a high-speed propeller strike.

In July, a screenshot taken from GoPro footage recorded by Boza’s fellow snorkeler in the water and posted to social media quickly identified Long’s vessel at his residence in Key Colony Beach. Other stills from the same footage show Long’s vessel passing through the area where Boza was swimming and within roughly 30 feet of the camera operator in the water, FWC investigator Glen Wray wrote in the warrant. 

Other images, Wray said, show Long appearing to face directly towards the other occupants of Boza’s boat and the camera operator in the water, acknowledging the latter as he made hand signals to warn Long, but continuing without slowing down or changing course.

Though Long’s boat was the only vessel of the three mentioned in the arrest warrant to not have active tracks engaged in its GPS 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 strike, as well as a second waypoint created in Long’s passenger’s phone 12 minutes later and 9.8 miles away, “it can be deduced that (Long’s boat) was traveling at approximately 49 miles per hour on its return trip to Mr. Long’s residence.” 

A projected direct track from Long’s boat’s last location to the entrance of Key Colony Beach’s canals “showed he transited directly through the dive area,” Wray wrote.

Investigators say GoPro footage taken aboard victim Israel Boza’s boat show an unfurled dive flag that should be visible from the stern of the boat, though not displayed from the boat’s highest point. FWC/Contributed
Investigators say GoPro footage taken aboard victim Israel Boza’s boat show an unfurled dive flag that should be visible from the stern of the boat, though not displayed from the boat’s highest point. FWC/Contributed

Early reports following the incident called into question the display of a dive flag aboard Boza’s boat, an element addressed in Long’s warrant. GoPro stills confirm, and the report admits, that while an appropriately-sized flag was displayed, it lacked a required stiffening rod and was displayed from the rod holders behind the operator’s seat, not from the legally-required highest point of the vessel. 

However, the warrant states, 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 strike kept the flag unfurled naturally.

“Mr. Long failed to use ordinary, reasonable and due care toward Mr. Boza and eventually caused his death,” Wray concluded. “Mr. Long consciously and intentionally operated (his boat) without a proper lookout and at an unsafe speed with known hazards in the area and should have reasonably known that operating … through a dive area with multiple swimmers in the water would likely cause death or bodily injury to others in the water.”

According to Florida statute, vessel homicide is a second-degree felony, elevated to a first-degree felony if the perpetrator knew, or should have known, that an accident 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 a statement before press time.

Alex Rickert
Alex Rickert made the perfectly natural career progression from dolphin trainer to newspaper editor in 2021 after freelancing for Keys Weekly while working full time at Dolphin Research Center. A resident of Marathon since 2015, he fell in love with the Florida Keys community by helping multiple organizations and friends rebuild in the wake of Hurricane Irma. An avid runner, actor, and spearfisherman, he spends as much of his time outside of work on or under the sea having civil disagreements with sharks.