PINELLAS PARK — Three teenage boys were subject to racial slurs and attacked with pepper spray on their way to football practice on Thursday, according to Pinellas Park police.
Now three men face charges of child abuse in what police are calling a hate crime.
The incident gained widespread attention by Monday and was reported on by national news outlets such as Fox News and the New York Daily News.
The St. Petersburg branch of the NAACP on Monday released a statement asking the Pinellas Park Police Department and the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office to "aggressively investigate the allegations."
The incident took place Thursday around 3 p.m., police said. Peter-Austin George Afentakis, 19; Corey M. Knous, also 19; and John Karlton Schmidt, 18, were driving south on 62nd Street in a white Infiniti.
Schmidt spotted three teenage boys riding their bikes on a sidewalk, police said, and directed a racial slur at them from the car. Two of the teens, ages 15 and 13, were black. The other teen, a 14-year-old, was white.
The teens were on their way to football practice at Dixie Hollins High School. They told police they'd never met the men before.
Schmidt told the driver, Afentakis, to stop the car. The car and the teen bicyclists were all stopped at the red light on 62nd Street and 62nd Avenue.
Then police said Schmidt, with a T-shirt wrapped around his head to hide his face, shouted more racial slurs at the boys. A brief argument ensued. Schmidt got out of the car, shouted more racial slurs and doused them with pepper spray, police said, aiming the harsh chemical irritant at their faces and torsos.
He got back into the car and the men drove off.
Pinellas Park police officers later found Schmidt, Afentakis and Knous at Schmidt's residence on 67th Avenue. All three were arrested.
Schmidt was arrested on three counts of child abuse. Afentakis and Knous both face one count each of being a principal to child abuse.
Police officials said they have recommended to prosecutors the charges be classified as a hate crime because of the racial slurs. That could enhance the penalties the three men face if convicted.
The teens were not identified by police because of their ages. They were treated at the scene for exposure to pepper spray and released to their parents.
Pinellas Park police Lt. Adam Geissenberger said the three men have caused problems in the area before and were well known to officers.
Afentakis and Knous were both released from the Pinellas County jail on Friday after each posted $20,000 bail. Schmidt remains in jail, held in lieu of $60,000 bail.
Contact Hannah Jeffrey at hjeffrey@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8450. Follow @hannahjeffrey34.