Clearwater Beach ‘teen takeover’ shooting suspect arrested

CLEARWATER, Fla. - A 16-year-old boy accused of shooting another teenager multiple times during a ‘teen takeover' on Clearwater Beach on Sunday has been arrested. 

Polk County deputies helped Clearwater police arrest Noel Marsh III in Haines City, where he lives, Monday night. He’s charged with attempted second-degree murder, discharging a firearm in public and unlawful possession of a firearm by a minor.

Clearwater Beach shooting

What we know:

Police say Marsh fired seven shots and hit the 17-year-old victim in the leg, arm and chest. The victim is in the hospital but is expected to be OK. It happened around 5:15 p.m. Sunday near Coronado Drive and Devon Drive. 

"We are fortunate that the victim or bystanders were not killed in gunfire," Clearwater Deputy Police Chief Michael Walek said Tuesday during a press conference.

Investigators say a fight between two groups who know each other escalated into the shooting. The fight started, police say, about a month ago in Winter Haven. The victim told detectives it stems from social media and party-related rivalries. Marsh won’t talk to detectives, police say.

"I want to be crystal clear about one thing," Walek said. "This kind of reckless and criminal behavior will not be tolerated on Clearwater Beach or anywhere in our city. You will not come to our city, take it over or mess around."

Walek said Marsh was identified as the shooter early on with the help of their real-time operations center and detectives.  

"The organizer of this ‘link up,’ as it was referred, encouraged people to bring umbrellas, water, not alcohol, and not guns. The flyer also mentioned no unsupervised minors," Walek said.

Walek said the event didn’t have a permit.

According to Walek, several other people were detained and a 17-year-old from Brandon was arrested and charged with obstructing or resisting an officer without violence, unlawful carry of a concealed firearm and possession of a firearm by a minor under 18.  Police say he ran from the scene of the shooting, but wasn’t the shooter.

Thwarting teen takeovers

Dig deeper:

Walek said the police department was aware of the event and had resources allocated and monitored the social media event posts in the days leading up to it. 

"We coordinated manpower and resources as a result of the review. This event escalated quickly," Walek said. "Throughout the day, they were relatively calm. They are gathered in groups. Like the sheriff mentioned, we have to balance what they're doing. To be on the beach and stand there in a group is not a crime. But furthermore, on top of that, the flash point of this entire thing appears to be the shooting when a bunch of out-of-town people decide to come to the beach and escalate things because of their own problems." 

According to Clearwater police, many of the people involved in Sunday's events traveled from outside the city, including from Hillsborough County, Polk County and other areas.

"Sunday's incident is a one off," Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, who was also at Tuesday’s press conference, said. "We have been very successful in monitoring these types of incidents and making sure that they don't escalate the way Sunday’s [incident] did, but this happened very fast."

Gualtieri also had a strong message for parents of teens going to these takeovers.

"They do need to be responsible for these kids. These are kids who are 14, 15, 16 years old, a lot of them came over here by Uber,"Gualtieri said. "If there is an opportunity for us to hold the parents responsible, we're going to do it. I'm not going to tell you it's easy, and making those cases against the parents and doing those things that are necessary to establish some sort of crime, you know, it's not easy. I'll acknowledge that. But if there's an opportunity to do [it], we'll do it under the right circumstances. And unfortunately, too, this is a sad reality of it, is that a lot of these kids don't have parents."

Since December 31, 2025, the CPD’s threat management unit has identified 11 "takeover" events. Nine were canceled and two never materialized. 

"It's pretty much a consensus model of all the law enforcement agencies in the county. When we get wind of these things, we contact these people, and we tell them, ‘Look, we're not playing,’" Sheriff Gualtieri said.

Gualtieri said that’s what they told a teen Monday planning a takeover in Madeira Beach this weekend, and he canceled.

On Monday, Walek said there were mentions on social media of another ‘takeover’ on the beach, and CPD said it increased manpower on the beach and got assistance from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. 

"Clearwater Beach has been and remains a safe, family place to visit," Walek said. "People come from all over the world to enjoy our beautiful beaches. We will not allow outsiders to come in and ruin our reputation."

"This was the first weekend of summer break for a lot of these kids and this is the last weekend this nonsense will happen," Gualtieri stated. 

In Pasco County, deputies said they were made aware of possible incidents involving "teen takeovers" in the Wesley Chapel area on Monday.

Additional PSO units were stationed in the area as a precautionary measure to maintain public safety. Businesses in the area also hired off-duty deputies to ensure the security of their locations as a precautionary measure.

PSO noted that it did not see any significant incidents arise related to the "teen takeover" event. Deputies said they asked several juveniles to leave, but no arrests were made during the incident.

Many involved came from outside Clearwater

According to Clearwater police, many of the people involved in Sunday's events traveled from outside the city, including from Hillsborough County, Polk County and other areas.

In May, Tampa police arrested 22 people aged 12 to 21 after a teen takeover of Curtis Hixon Park. Police seized two guns and drugs there. There have also been these types of takeovers in Orlando, Atlanta and Detroit, leading to curfews in some spots.

Ongoing investigation details

What we don't know:

Officials have not yet confirmed how Marsh obtained the firearm as a minor. It also remains unclear if any other individuals will face charges for participating in the fight that occurred before the shooting. Because Marsh refused to talk to detectives after his arrest in Haines City, his specific motive regarding the weekend confrontation is still unconfirmed.

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