Instagram/jaycarnicom33
The head of ‘Dads Against Predators’ has been charged with battery and extortion after he allegedly attacked a man and made another eat cigarette butts.
Predator sting content has become incredibly popular in recent years, with many creators taking influence from NBC’s iconic To Catch A Predator show.
In the videos, creators confront people who are suspected of attempting to meet up with young children. They are then humiliated on camera during the confrontation.
Jay Carnicom, one of the leaders of the group Dads Against Predators, was filming one such confrontation in northern Florida, but his antics during the video ended up leading to his own arrest when he took things too far.
Dads Against Predators leader arrested after allegedly attacking man in video
As reported by WSVN, in a video posted by Carnicom in January, he approached a man at a Walmart in Clay County and accused him of trying to meet with a young boy.
Carnicom had reportedly pretended to be a child to lure the man to the store and then, during the confrontation, allegedly slapped him in the face twice.
“Do you think you’ll ever try to meet a child again?” the 32-year-old asked in the video.
Deputies said Carnicom is accused of targeting multiple men in similar viral clips.
According to the arrest warrant, another video from January allegedly shows him forcing a man to eat cigarette butts while threatening to expose their conversations.
The heavily redacted warrant also states that in February, Carnicom allegedly lured another man who believed he was meeting a child.
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The arresting officer said he understood the predator catcher’s goal, but said Carnicom crossed the line and may have damaged the chances of his targets being prosecuted.
“If I was a citizen of Clay County and I heard that we made an arrest on somebody who’s protecting kids, I’d be upset as well,” Clay County Sheriff’s Office chief of investigations Domenic Paniccia told News4Jax.
Screenshot/wsvnJay Carnicom reportedly made a suspected predator eat cigarette butts.
“But you can’t beat people, you can’t extort them, you can’t make them do things or else.”
Paniccia added that he believes these predator catchers are motivated more by subscribers and profit than by handling things legally.
“If it’s not done properly, it’s hurting us. It’s hurdles that we don’t need to cross. We would love to take these cases from the beginning and do a proper investigation,” he said.
Furthermore, the sheriff’s office said that because of Carnicom’s actions, the men in the video won’t be charged – something that the influencer already knew.
“If you see me smack a child predator, most of the time, I’ve already called… the police, and they told me because there was no real child or I wasn’t a law enforcement officer, they couldn’t do anything,” he said in a video reportedly posted back in March.
However, Carnicom’s desire to catch predators stems from his own abuse at the hands of a family friend when he was 11 years old.
Carnicom said the man died by suicide in 2020, hours after the influencer posted an eight-minute video where he confronted his childhood abuser.
