WATCH: Teen smashes right through gym ceiling during wrestling match
A high school wrestling match took a strange turn when a teenager crashed right through the gym roof above. The boy required six hours of surgery after his shocking 40-foot plunge, which was caught on camera.
The crazy scene unfolded during a wrestling tournament at Buchholz High School in Gainesville, Florida on Friday.
Sharyn Gonzalez was filming her son compete in one of the district matches when 19-year-old Chad Shanks fell through the ceiling and landed on a wrestling mat.
“We just started hearing some cracking sounds,” Gonzalez told News4Jax. “A couple people thought it sounded a little like gunshots. I didn't think that, but all of a sudden you just see this boy fall from the ceiling through the skylight.”
SHOCKING-- This wrestling match at Buchholz High School turned to panic when a teenager fell from the roof! Officials say he, and a group friends were trespassing into the school. What do you think? #Florida#Gainesville#Newspic.twitter.com/rIB2v9V5g4
— Gabby Arzola (@GabrielleArzola) February 25, 2019
A group of teenagers were on the roof of the school and one of them threw a phone near the skylight, Alachua County Sheriff's Office said. Shanks was trying to get to the phone when he “stepped into a skylight and crashed about 40 feet (12 meters) down onto the gym floor below,” explained Lt. Brett Rhodenizer of the Alachua County Sheriff's Office, WCJB reports.
Shanks suffered fractures to his back and had to have a six hour operation, his friends told News4Jax.
Six of the teens have been charged with second-degree misdemeanor trespassing on school grounds, and Shanks will be charged too. They were reportedly filming a music video on the roof of the gym when the teen fell.
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