An apparent fight over lobsters led to an attempted murder charge in South Florida, according to Eyewitness News ABC7NY. A man is accused of deliberately cutting off a diver's air supply while the diver was underwater, in a case the accused describes very differently.
The man charged is Michael Simpson, a 51-year-old from South Florida. Investigators say he intentionally shut off the air supply of a diver while the alleged victim was beneath the surface of the water.
The alleged victim was identified as 18-year-old Hunter Coffer. According to investigators, Coffer was diving for lobsters off Fisher Island on July 29th, during the lobster mini-season, when the incident happened.
A social media video captured the moments before, showing the occupants of two boats arguing with one another. "You are childish as can be," one person is heard saying during the heated exchange on the water.
Detectives with the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office said the confrontation started after Simpson and the owner of the boat that Coffer was using began arguing about their dive locations. The dispute over where to dive, they said, escalated from there.
Simpson was initially charged with attempted felony murder, though a judge reduced the charge to second-degree attempted murder, and he walked out of court on Wednesday. According to the report, Simpson tells a very different story of what happened on the water that day.