What began as a group of teenagers gathered around a fire on a cold night in Florida became a felony case after investigators said one teen poured gasoline in a way that caused his friend to catch fire.
Deep Dive BodyCam, which reviewed footage of the incident and the later law enforcement response, opened its report with video that appears to show the moments before and after the victim was burned. In the clip, a teen can be heard asking, “Do you want to be on fire?” before chaos breaks out around the fire.
Within seconds, people nearby begin yelling for the victim to get into the lake. The video captures the panic of the moment, with voices shouting, “Get in the lake,” and “Put it out,” as the teenager runs toward the water.
According to FOX 35 Orlando reporter Camille Sarabia, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office later identified the suspect as 17-year-old Bradey Ming, who was accused of intentionally setting another teen on fire on Jan. 11 on Kauffman Island at Lake Kerr.
Sarabia reported that the victim suffered second-degree burns to his right hand, bottom, and right leg, while deputies also described a “deep full thickness burn” to his lower right leg, lower left leg, and left thigh.
This is the kind of story where the word “prank” does not fit, even if the people involved may have treated it that way in the moment. Gasoline and open flames are not teenage horseplay; they are a combination that can permanently change someone’s body in seconds.
The First Story Did Not Add Up
According to the Deep Dive BodyCam report, the victim’s mother contacted the Marion County Sheriff’s Office after spending time in the hospital with her son and struggling to understand how his injuries matched the explanation she had been given.
On the call, she told Deputy Green that her son had burned himself about two weeks earlier, but she had not been able to make sense of the version of events the other kids were telling her.
The mother said she began to suspect there was a video of the incident and started asking other teenagers to help find it. When she finally saw it, she told the deputy, the situation became clear in a way the earlier explanation had not.
“This kid dumped a five gallon can of gas in the fire,” she said in the bodycam report, adding that the teen then sprayed or poured gasoline in a way that sent flames toward her son’s back.
Sarabia’s FOX 35 report gave more detail from the arrest affidavit, saying the victim had initially told his mother that he tried to throw a water bottle with gasoline into a fire when it erupted and burned his legs. That account changed after the victim’s father found video showing the boy had allegedly been set on fire by Ming and contacted the sheriff’s office.
The mother’s reaction, as shown in the Deep Dive BodyCam report, was not hard to understand. She said the injuries did not line up because her son’s right hand was not burned as badly as the back of his body and legs, which made her question how the fire reached him the way it did.
That is often how cases like this begin to unravel. Not with a dramatic confession, but with a parent looking at an injury and realizing the explanation does not match the damage.
What Deputies Said The Video Showed
Sarabia reported that before speaking with the victim, a Marion County deputy had already seen video that deputies said showed Ming pouring gasoline on the boy, causing him to catch fire.
The victim later told detectives that he had been about 10 feet away from the fire, drinking alcohol with a group on the island, when Ming was “messing” with the fire using a gas can. According to Sarabia, the victim said Ming asked something like, “Do you want to be set on fire?”
The victim told detectives that Ming held the gas can, created a trail with gasoline, and then splashed it on him. Sarabia reported that the trail ignited, and the boy caught fire before running into the lake to extinguish the flames.
Deep Dive BodyCam’s footage appears to capture that same terrifying sequence, with other teenagers urgently yelling for the victim to get into the water as the fire spreads.
A witness told detectives that the group had started a fire because it was cold and that Ming poured gas on it to get it going, according to FOX 35. The witness also confirmed that Ming created a trail of gasoline and splashed it on the victim, the affidavit said.
At the same time, Sarabia reported, the witness said no one involved was arguing and there was no indication that Ming hurt the boy maliciously. That detail may matter in court, but it does not erase the danger of the act itself.
The investigator, according to Sarabia, concluded that a reasonable person could understand gasoline would be likely to cause great bodily injury. That point is hard to dispute when the result was a teenager hospitalized with serious burns.
A Warrant And A Second-Degree Felony Charge
The Deep Dive BodyCam report later shows law enforcement speaking with Ming’s parents as officers prepared to serve a warrant.
Detective Washington, with the sheriff’s office, told the family the charge was aggravated battery, described in the video as a second-degree felony. Ming’s father asked whether it mattered that his son had never been in trouble before, and the detective explained that his role was to investigate whether there was evidence or probable cause.
The detective said questions about prior history, possible sentencing, or how the case might be handled were matters for the attorney and the state attorney’s office rather than the investigators serving the warrant.
That exchange was measured, but it also showed how quickly a teenage night with friends had become a serious criminal matter. The conversation was no longer about whether someone made a bad decision around a fire; it was about a felony charge, juvenile detention, and what prosecutors might do next.
Deep Dive BodyCam reported that Ming turned himself in to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office on Jan. 29, 2026, and was initially booked into a juvenile detention facility on a charge of aggravated battery.
Sarabia’s FOX 35 report also said Ming turned himself in and, at the time of that report, was being held without bond.
Prosecutors Later Escalated The Case
According to Deep Dive BodyCam, the case changed again 12 days after Ming first turned himself in.
The channel reported that on Feb. 10, prosecutors elected to charge him as an adult. He was then rebooked into the Marion County Jail on the more serious count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
Deep Dive BodyCam reported that Ming posted a $5,000 bond the same day.
That charging decision is important because it moves the case into a different legal reality. Being 17 can leave a defendant close to the line between juvenile court and adult consequences, and prosecutors’ decision to charge him as an adult signals how seriously they viewed the allegations and the injuries.
It is also where the human cost becomes impossible to ignore. As Deep Dive BodyCam noted, Ming was able to bond out while the boy he was accused of setting on fire remained hospitalized.
There is no clean way to describe that contrast. One teenager walked out of custody, while another was still living with burns that may take far longer to heal than the criminal case takes to resolve.
The Lasting Damage
Deep Dive BodyCam’s host framed the case as more than the story of one teenager accused of a violent act, describing it as a group of friends who drifted across a line while drinking in the dark on an island where no adult was watching.
That observation is blunt, but it gets at something true. Groups can make dangerous things feel normal, especially when teenagers are laughing, filming, drinking, and escalating each other’s behavior until someone gets hurt.
Still, responsibility does not disappear just because others were present. According to the accounts reported by Sarabia and Deep Dive BodyCam, the allegation is that Ming was the one holding the gas can, creating the trail, and splashing gasoline toward the victim.
The victim’s initial decision to give a different explanation also raises uncomfortable questions. His mother told Deputy Green she wondered whether he was covering for his friends or had been threatened on the way to the hospital, because she could not understand why he would not say someone lit him on fire.
Whatever the reason, the video appears to have become the key evidence that changed the direction of the investigation.
For the victim and his family, the legal process is only one part of what comes next. Burns can leave scars, pain, surgeries, and emotional trauma, and the fact that the person accused was a friend may make the aftermath even harder.
Ming is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. But the case, as described by Deep Dive BodyCam and Sarabia’s FOX 35 report, is already a grim warning about how quickly reckless behavior with fire and fuel can become a life-altering crime.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, John developed a love for the great outdoors early on. With years of experience as a wilderness guide, he’s navigated rugged terrains and unpredictable weather patterns. John is also an avid hunter and fisherman who believes in sustainable living. His focus on practical survival skills, from building shelters to purifying water, reflects his passion for preparedness. When he’s not out in the wild, you can find him sharing his knowledge through writing, hoping to inspire others to embrace self-reliance.
