Video shows man hitting protected shorebird on Bay Area beach, police investigating

INDIAN SHORES, Fla. - Indian Shores police and the FWC are seeking help to identify a man seen on video running over a protected shorebird on an electric scooter.

It happened last Friday evening near a known colony just south of the Redington Shores Public Beach Access Point.

Bob Truesdell, a four-year Audubon Florida volunteer Bird Steward and local photographer, recorded the tragedy as it took place.

"This guy came through one time, and I missed him because I didn’t have my camera stuff set up. Then he returned and this time I had my camera set up. He swerved around me and then went up into the birds on purpose," Truesdell said.

The man is seen in the video running over a Royal Tern on his scooter.

"It just sat there for about 25 minutes," he said. "It tried to fly, but it couldn’t get any altitude."

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By nightfall, the tern died.

"That bird was a young bird from this year, so you could tell that it had never encountered anything like this before and it wasn’t sure how to react. It hadn’t learned," Audubon Florida Shorebird Program Manager Holley Short said.

Royal Terns are a federally protected species through the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

"They will bring their fledged young from the nesting islands to these beaches to continue feeding their young and making sure that they are adults that can fend for themselves," she said. "Seeing it hit and run over, it was just very heartbreaking to see that type of irresponsibility from somebody on the beach."

Investigators are seeking tips to identify the man in the video. If you recognize him, contact the Indian Shores Police Department. Detectives say at minimum he will face an animal cruelty charge in addition to a $93 fine for violating a local ordinance that bans electric vehicles on the beach.

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