Three juveniles have been arrested in an egg throwing prank that seriously injured a 17-year-old runner.
Noah Grant and five cross country teammates from Robinson High School were running south on Bayshore Blvd. Sunday evening when a vehicle passed by and someone threw an egg out one of the windows. The egg hit Grant in the eye.
“I felt this huge impact on the side of my face and immediately I went down,” he said.
Grant suffered a medial orbital wall fracture as a result of the prank. He also suffered a corneal abrasion, subconjuctival hemorrhage and a contusion.
“I’m on the ground and I just put my hand up to feel my eye and I just feel my face caved in,” he said.
The attack didn’t stop there. The teammates say the SUV made another pass and a second egg was hurled, while Grant was still on the ground.
When paramedics arrived, Grant quickly realized the extent of his injury.
“They looked at my eye and they were washing it out and they pulled a piece of egg out of my eye about the size of my thumbnail,” he said.
Police say they received a tip that the suspects, three teenage boys between the ages of 16 and 17, had purchased five dozen eggs at a Walmart on Gandy Blvd. Sunday night.
While investigating the tip, officers spotted a white SUV that closely matched the description given in the original report.
Police conducted a traffic stop, wherein officers say they were able to establish the defendants' involvement in the offense.
There’s no telling yet whether the damage to Grant’s eye will be permanent.
The police department has recently received complaints via the City of Tampa website that indicated a white SUV had been throwing eggs at pedestrians in this same area, to include Davis Island.
The suspects are facing aggravated battery charges.