© Picayune Leader
Delonte' Martistee, 22, and Ryan Austin Calhoun, 23, were arrested Friday and charged with sexual battery by multiple perpetrators, the Bay County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. Both are students at Troy University in Alabama, NBC station WJHG reported.
The arrests were made after the Troy, Alabama, police department discovered video of the sexual assault, which occurred between March 10 and 12 on a Panama City Beach, as it investigated a shooting, the sheriff's office said. The video shows the sexual assault of a 19-year-old passed out on the sand.
Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen called the video "probably one of the most disgusting, repulsive, sickening things that I have seen this year on Panama City Beach, and I have seen a lot of them," WJHG reported.
"Within 10 feet from where this is happening there are hundreds of people standing there watching, looking, seeing, hearing what is going on," he said. More arrests are expected, the sheriff's office said.
Martistee and Calhoun appeared in court Saturday and their bonds were set at $50,000, WJHG reported. Troy University suspended both students, the station said.
Comment: The gang rape is disgusting enough, but the fact that there were hundreds of people standing there, just watching these men rape a woman, is another sign of the normalization of rape in society. For more on that, see: Rape Culture in America - How the system protects the rapists and fails the victims