This happened back in May, but apparently the arrest and the incident becoming big news just happened in the past 48 hours.
A Florida woman, Stephanie Pedroso, scheduled a birthday party for her daughter at a skate rink. Her contract with the rink required her to hire two off-duty deputies for security. She failed to do so, so the rink cancelled the event and refunded her money. Pedroso then used her daughter's social media to make a live video encouraging friends to show up to inflict violence in the community, which included many of the businesses around Astro Skate, the sheriff’s office said.
"Using social media to weaponize our youth is absolutely deplorable," Sheriff Chad Chronister said. "As a parent, I cannot fathom what went through this woman's mind when she put lives at risk to provoke this mayhem."
In the Instagram live video stream, Pedroso made multiple “violent and vulgar “statements as well as numerous racial slurs, including:
- “For y’all, if y’all still go up there, tear the (expletive) out of them. I’ve got some money for y’all, and I’ll pay y’all (expletive).”
- “I hope everybody still show up and tear this (expletive) up tomorrow.”
- "Make them crackers work."
- “Stress them the (expletive) out.”
Woman charged with inciting 500-person riot at Brandon Astro Skate, sheriff says
Police said Stephanie Pedroso offered to pay rioters after the skating rink canceled her daughter’s birthday party.
Stephanie Pedroso is facing charges after she incited a riot at a Brandon skate park, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. [ Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office ]
By
Published Yesterday|Updated Yesterday
If Stephanie Pedroso’s daughter couldn’t have her birthday at Astro Skate in Brandon, then no one could.
That’s what Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said motivated Pedroso to make social media posts urging people to “terrorize” the skating rink the night of May 18, sparking a riot that took more than 40 sheriff’s deputies to quell.
“If y’all still go up there, tear the f--k out of them,” Pedroso said in an Instagram livestream during the attack. “I’ve got some money for y’all.”
A crowd of about 500 people obliged. At around 9:20 p.m., they poured into the street near the rink and wreaked havoc. Fights broke out, and a teen was thrown through the plate-glass window of a nearby barber shop. Rioters broke into a 7-Eleven across the street and looted it, causing $500 in damages, sheriff’s officials said.
After six hours of mayhem, 23 children and three adults were arrested. Pedroso, who stayed home on the night of the riot, was not among them.
No deputies were injured, though Chronister said rioters punched and jumped on the backs of deputies trying to make arrests.
All this, Chronister said, because the skate rink canceled the reservation for Pedroso’s daughter’s party. The contract required her to hire two off-duty deputies for event security, and because she didn’t, the venue canceled the event and issued a full refund.
Pedroso now faces felony charges for inciting a riot and unlawful use of a two-way communication device. Others present were charged with trespassing, resisting arrest and battery on a law enforcement officer.
“Stephanie Pedroso intended to cause terror the evening of May 18, and that’s exactly what she did,” Chronister said.
Pedroso could not be reached for comment Thursday by phone or email.
Hillsborough County State Attorney Suzy Lopez,
in the midst of a reelection campaign, tried to use the charges to strike a contrast with her predecessor, suspended state attorney Andrew Warren.
“The Legislature enacts the law, we enforce the law,” Lopez said. “That may be confusing for some people, but it is not confusing for me.”
Warren shot back in a statement, noting that his office filed more than 265 charges following violence in May 2020 at protests over the police killing of George Floyd.
“Clearly the acting state attorney is lying about my record because she’s desperate to distract from the fact that crime has skyrocketed under her watch,” Warren wrote.
At Thursday’s news conference, Lopez noted that speech advocates in 2021 challenged the anti-incitement statute used to charge Pedroso on the grounds that it was unconstitutionally vague and could be used to crack down on protesters.
The Florida Supreme Court
upheld the anti-incitement law in June, though clarified that it could not be applied to bystanders at protests or to protesters who do not participate in violence.
“This case is not about free speech,” Lopez said. “This case is about rioters, and in Hillsborough County, we will prosecute rioters.”