Demonstration targets Florida boot camp

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Hundreds of people gathered in Tallahassee, Fla., this week to demand that the eight suspects in a recent death at an area boot camp face federal charges.

NAACP officials said that the protest at the federal courthouse was an attempt to urge authorities to press federal charges against those recently acquitted in the 2006 death at a Bay County, Fla., juvenile boot camp, the Tallahassee Democrat reported Wednesday.

The eight former defendants had all been charged in relation to the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson, who died a day after being struck by one of his drill instructors at the camp.

One autopsy of Anderson's body found that the teenager suffocated when his mouth was clamped shut by some of the camp's drill instructors.

Florida NAACP President Adora Obi Nweze said that U.S. Department of Justice officials attempted to discuss possible federal charges in the case Tuesday but their offer came far too late.

"They had 12 months to talk to me. Now, on the day of the march they want to talk to me? I don't think so,'' Nweze told the Democrat. ''Our next step is Washington, D.C.''