A 19-year-old man was seriously injured when he fell through a skylight of a Florida high school gym during a wrestling tournament this past weekend.
A mother who was using her cellphone to record video of her son's wrestling match at a district tournament captured the moment the man crash-landed on his back on the edge of the mat, as debris from the broken skylight fell around him at Buchholz High School in Gainesville, Fla.
The man who fell 40 feet from the roof to the gym floor, Chad Shanks, was taken to a local hospital, where he underwent six hours of surgery on his back. Shanks was able to move his legs after surgery.
At least one wrestler and an assistant coach suffered minor injuries caused by the falling debris.
Multiple media reports indicate that a number of teens were on the gym's roof at the time Shanks fell through the skylight. At least one outlet -- a TV station in Jacksonville, Fla. -- reported that the young people were on the roof filming a music video. Other reports state that one teen threw Shanks' phone onto the roof. When he went to retrieve his phone which had landed on the skylight, Shanks stepped onto the skylight, falling the equivalent of four stories to the gym floor below.
Shanks and the other teens will be charged with trespassing, as they were on school grounds after hours.
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