PORT ORANGE - When 11-year-old Carlo “Kingston” Dorelli of Port Orange was arrested for threatening to shoot up a middle school, the Volusia Sheriff's Office named him publicly, shackled him, and “perp walked” him into confinement.
All of this was caught on streaming video. It was a shocking display. Minors are rarely named after being arrested for a crime, much less publicly displayed in chains. But Sheriff Mike Chitwood, furious about how false threats tie up emergency resources, was fed up.
The perp walk happened three days after the sheriff announced a new policy at a Sept. 13, 2024, press conference.
"What we're going to start doing Monday is, since parents, you don't want to raise your kid, I'm going to start raising them," he said. "Every time we make an arrest, your kid's photo is going to be put out there."
He continued: “The second point of this is, if I can any way find out that a parent knew what was going on and wasn't doing anything, your ass is getting perp walked with them.”
Felony charges levied against 11-year-old boy
Dorelli was charged with making a written threat of a mass shooting, either at Creekside Middle School, where he was a student, or Silver Sands Middle School. Both schools are in Port Orange.
The offense is a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Dorelli was the first of at least 12 kids to get the Chitwood treatment, based on a review of social media and press releases. The arrest made national news. Hundreds of outlets reported on the perp-walking, no-nonsense sheriff.
What’s not been reported? Charges against Dorelli were eventually dropped. And in a strange twist, his chief accuser, another 11-year-old boy, was also charged with threatening to commit a mass shooting, in addition to making a false report about a firearm.
The investigation
On Sept. 15, 2024, the sheriff’s office received an anonymous tip through Fortify Florida, an online tool used to report suspicious activity to authorities.
The tipster stated that she was on the phone with some kids from her school and “they were saying they are gonna’ shoot up the school and stuff like that and its scaring me and a boy showed his guns and I don’t feel safe to go to school and those kids are saying they also want to fight me.”
The threat stemmed from a FaceTime chat Dorelli had with three other students, where he had shown off a collection of swords and Airsoft guns. In interviews with deputies, at least one student in the FaceTime chat said Dorelli was planning to shoot up Silver Springs Middle School and that he "had made a 'hit list' of people he intended to kill."
FaceTime is a video and audio communication service developed by Apple that allows users to make video or audio calls over the internet.
That account was repeated in a larger group chat that did not include Dorelli. Word was spreading.
Deputies acted fast. They searched the house where Dorelli lived with his mother, Jesse Myerski, and recovered numerous Airsoft rifles, which look very much like real guns, along with knives, swords and other weapons, as well as a list of names.
In an arrest affidavit, deputies said that the others in the FaceTime session “began to discuss how Carlo was going to complete a shooting at Creekside Middle School or Silver Sands Middle School.” Dorelli admittedly “joked” about these comments but denied making any direct threat to either school.
He initially denied that he created the list, but changed his story and said he had made the list, but two names were suggested by the other kids, according to police. “Carlo (Dorelli) confessed to verbally telling the others the list was a ‘hit list,’" according to a police report.
Deputies arrested the boy at 5:25 a.m. on Sept. 16. He would end up spending 12 days locked up with much older boys, many accused of violent crimes, his mother said.
"He was in there with attempted murderers. He was so sad that he would just sit in his cell every day and cry," Myerski told the News-Journal.
New developments in the case lead to surprising arrest
On Sept. 24, 2024, eight days after Dorelli's arrest, the Sheriff's Office again reviewed body camera footage of interviews with students who participated in FaceTime chats and the larger text messaging group.
Deputies obtained text messages from a boy in a chat group that was in both the FaceTime session and the later, larger chat that did not include Carlo Dorelli.
The boy, whom we will call “Juan,” was spreading the news about Carlo. (The News-Journal does not name juvenile offenders unless the prosecutor charges them as an adult.)
“It was discovered that (Juan) insistently brought up the fact that Carlo (Dorelli) has guns, that the other subjects in the text group are on Carlo’s kill list, and that Carlo would be the next school shooter,” a deputy wrote in an arrest affidavit.
“The text messages written by (Juan) were written in a threatening manner and had no other purpose but to cause the other readers to fear that they will be victims of a mass shooting.”
Juan said he was joking but wanted to scare people. He was arrested and got the perp-walk treatment. A three-sentence press release went out on Sept. 27, which named the boy and stated he had been charged with "making written threats to kill and making a false report of the use of a firearm. He sent threatening text messages to classmates with the sole purpose of putting them in fear for their safety."
Dorelli released same day second arrest was made
Myerski said her son was released the same day. But the charges had not been dropped. So why was he released? The Sheriff's Office and State Attorney's Office declined to comment for this story, but Myerski said her son’s lawyer spoke with prosecutors and learned that they had viewed some body camera footage that took the case in a different direction.
After seeing the body camera video, Myerski considered urging that Dorelli’s case go to trial, but instead, a deferred prosecution agreement was reached, she said. “My son admitted to no wrongdoing, and after completing a six-week diversion program, the charge was dismissed,” she said.
It wasn’t until March 26, 2025, that the charges were dropped. The deferred prosecution agreement could not be verified. The arrest information is public, but juvenile court records are not. That makes it difficult for anyone following any of these cases to find out what eventually happened to the arrestees
But Sheriff's Office spokesman Andrew Gant said in an email sent prior to the latest arrest on Aug. 14, that to his knowledge, "each of the defendants has completed a diversion program to reduce or dispose of their criminal charges."
Chitwood, in an appearance on CNN when three perp walkers were still in custody, was asked how long he planned to hold them. Chitwood said that would be up to a judge.
He also said those arrested going forward would get 21 days in “secure custody," as well as “intense probation," an ankle monitor, and no social media outside of schoolwork for six months.
Chitwood has told other media outlets that the perp-walking campaign has resulted in fewer threats.
The whole perp-walking affair couldn’t have happened were it not for a law that makes it legal for members of law enforcement to name and publicize juveniles when they are charged with a felony. If those charges are dismissed or pled down, the most serious punishment comes with the arrest.
Carlo “Kingston” Dorelli, now 12, got that punishment even though he wasn’t convicted of a felony. He is still haunted by the experience, says his mother. After the ordeal, he stopped sleeping in his bedroom and slept on the couch every night.
"He's trying really hard to get back to normal. He doesn't really like going out in public anymore, he thinks that everyone knows him from the media and the news, she said. “He can’t see a police car without getting scared. It’s been a nightmare.”
Meanwhile, school has resumed, and so have the perp walks. A 16-year-old was arrested Aug. 14 after posting a photo of a gun inside a bookbag on social media with a location tag referencing Mainland High School in Daytona Beach, according to a News-Journal report.
He was charged with making an electronic threat to conduct a mass shooting.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Bizarre story of perp-walked boy: Named, shamed and released
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