Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Florida Mom Turns in Teen Son For Homecoming Shooting: Cops

Episode Date: November 9, 2025

Zachary Sarrach, 17, faces felony charges for allegedly firing a gun during a physical altercation at a homecoming bonfire party. The incident happened in September. But Sarrach's wasn't identified until the following month. The teen, who is already a convicted felon, was driven to the Marion County Sheriff's Office in Florida by his mother, who turned him in to detectives. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks at the case and body-worn camera video of Sarrach's arrest in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/CrimeFixHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Jo PotutoProducer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Oh, s'h. Oh, shit. Where am I? There's a teenager in Florida, and he has accused of firing shots at a high school bonfire party. And once arrested, his only concern? You know, why don't get a posted on place? I go through the shocking allegations and what's next? for this teenage boy. I'm Janette Levy, and this is Crime Fix.

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Click the link below or scan the QR code that you see right there on your screen. You know, almost every homecoming dance ends with an after party. Sometimes they get a little rowdy. But one homecoming party at Forest High School in Marion County, Florida ended with gunshots. It was bad, and it led to a manhunt of sorts. 17-year-old Zachary Sarich is accused of firing multiple rounds at another teen while at a bonfire after the school. dance on September 28th, it was that video that actually helped identify him, which ultimately led to his own mother turning him into the cops.

I have no idea, bro. May 11. It's amazing back here, your first right person's accident. Yeah, we're going to go right now. All on real quick. Every time I resume is. Now to understand how we got to this point, we have to go back to the very beginning. When Marion County Sheriff's deputies first arrived at the scene that night, they received

information that a physical fight had started and there were several eyewitnesses, but there was no clear suspect. But you know how things are these days. Someone had to have had TikTok recording or Instagram or something like that. So deputies, they found a social media video of Zachary Serich with a gun. and they heard several shots fired in the background of the video. A still photo of that video was shared on the sheriff's Facebook page so the public could help identify the suspect.

And one of the victims in this case actually told deputies that the shooter chased him as he fired the gun and he could actually feel the bullets whizzing past his head. That is absolutely terrifying. Deputies wrote in an affidavit that videos appeared to back up the teen's story. Five days later, Ocala Police, police connected a detective with the parents of the suspect, and those parents positively identified the teen in the video as 17-year-old Zachary Sarich, their son and stepson. Further investigation revealed that Sarich deactivated his social media accounts after the incident and even expressed

his plan to flee to Daytona. But on October 28th, Sarich's mom, she drove him to the Marion County Sheriff's Office, Criminal Investigations Division, and her son, son was taken into custody. I say, good for mom. Here's the body camera video of his arrest. I have no idea, brother. It's a maze back of your first right person, I said. Yeah, we're going to go right now on real quick. Every time we're arresting. Now, you might think that Zachary Serich is shaking in his boots that maybe he's a little bit scared since he was just arrested for several felonies, but instead, he is more worried about this. You know, am I going to be a posted on Facebook again? Not by us.

I can't tell you what happened after. Who are the people who have you posted with me? We have an office called the Public Information Office. See that call with the headlights? with her. So deputies walk Sarich over to the squad car so they can transport him to the Department of Juvenile Justice. That's basically the juvenile detention center. Yeah, so come on this side. I'm going to give you just a quick pat down, okay? So just come over here and just face the car you said you have a scrap of paper in your pocket that's the only

that's the only thing you have oh yeah i got my uh bonnet in there he told that's the hat yeah You're good. In an interview with detective, Sarich admitted that he was armed that night and he threatened to shoot at a group of individuals if they tried to attack him. In an affidavit, a detective wrote that Serich told him that he tried to defend a friend and, quote, when he felt outnumbered, he clutched a firearm located in his waistband while holding the firearm. He stated, quote, if all y'all run down on me, I will shoot. The defendant noted that eventually everyone fled and he then heard the gunshots, but he insisted that he was not the one

firing. But the cops, they are not buying that denial from the teenage boy. Sarich faces a long list of charges, including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm, by a felon he's only 17 remember possession of a firearm by a minor carrying a concealed firearm public discharge of a firearm and use of a firearm during the commission of a felony all right so to talk about this i want to bring in joe petuto she is a law professor and also she is launching a new youtube channel called prof joe explains so joe thank you so much for joining me uh you know this is not the crime of the century but what disturbs me about this is that we have a young person running around with a gun in his waistband going to a homecoming party and and allegedly he's accused of firing a gun

I mean thank God nobody was killed and then his his mom turns him in so you know you're a former prosecutor how important is that accountability piece of this that mom you know recognizes her son the cops go to the house and she's like yeah that's my son and then she drives him down to the police department and says she hand delivers him she's like here he is yeah oh i think it's absolutely important uh you know taking responsibility for one's acts is you know is probably the best way to get to a reformation and a change in how you operate and i think it's really important for this kid to know that there are consequences and that his mother accepts that there are consequences. And I agree with you completely. Bringing a gun to a bonfire where they're

celebrating homecoming is just awful. It may not be the crime of the century, but if you were the mother of one of those kids or one of the kids who is there, it's got to be traumatizing. So yeah, and that's what, you know, that's what bothers me about this. You know, I'm a mom. You know, my son is eventually going to be the age where he's maybe at a homecoming party at one of these bonfires. And, And that is the last place. Anywhere involving kids is the last place where anybody should be showing up with a firearm. Yeah. And firing it.

So I'm like, what is going on with this kid? I don't know. It seems to me to be crazy that you would think that your solution to being angry at another kid is to take out a gun and fire indiscriminately. I mean, he didn't hide. He didn't hit the, uh, the young person. he was trying to aim at. Thank God he didn't hit anybody else, but that's really just kind of taking a gun and just firing blindly. Anybody could have been hurt. Anybody could have been killed. You know, it's scary. You know, you can't keep kids at home. You have to let them go out.

You have to let them enjoy life to grow up. But boy, as a parent to worry about any time your child leaves the house, no matter where they're going, that they could be, you know, in the middle of a shooting is it's really scary i agree with you terribly scary yeah it is absolutely terrifying and you know the cops i mean they they know zachary sarach i mean the cops in marion county in ocala they recognized him because marian county they're like they're investigating this and they're like we have to identify this guy they have a screen grab with him from the bonfire they put it out and they're like please help us identify him the ocala police department you know they're cops they're like oh yeah we know him we know who we do this character is so they

go to his house and the stepdad and the mom are like yeah that's him that's that's our son you know and mom's like yeah that's him and so i just can't imagine mom seeing this and she you know it looks like he's been in trouble before, obviously. He's got a record. Yeah. So mom having to deal with us, you know, probably turning him in might be the best thing for him because maybe this will address some of the issues that he apparently is having. Yeah. It's tough love, isn't it? It's got to be very difficult for a parent to do that. I mean, you're putting your son into the criminal justice system and he's being charged with felonies, it's got to be very difficult. But what's the alternative, you know, to sort of condone, to appear that you condone, to appear that you don't care?

I mean, it is, I think, the highest action that a parent can take to show that you really care about your child. To hide him isn't a way to care about it, to pretend it didn't happen, to excuse it. Certainly, I don't think, is the way to show that you love a child. I commend the mother and I really sympathize with her. I wouldn't ever want to be put in that position, but she was and she did it. What's kind of scary to me is that according to the affidavit, they're writing that, you know, Zachary, he shut down all his social media accounts and he was going to flee. I mean, that was his instinct was to flee to cover it up. And of course, young, people that you know that's probably an instinct that's probably maybe what they what they feel

like they're supposed to do i mean they're scared they freak out you know like oh my god how am i going to cover this up how am i going to get out of this um but obviously you know mom was like no yeah that's not happening and he's that shows he's a teenager how do you expect to flee and not get caught? How does shutting down all your social media help when your picture is already out there? What do you expect to do with the next however many years of your life if you think fleeing is the way to solve it? And what are you doing? But I think this is the signature characteristics of a lot of criminals. What are you doing taking the act and not thinking ahead to now what happens? I mean, it's like in the moment, and then you say, wow, now what?

And then his response is, I'll run, although as though that's going to help it. I mean, in some ways, it really shows that he's young, but he still needs to face the consequences for it. I mean, not having consequences of 10 is not the way to handle it. So his mother was right. And it's a terrible situation, but, you know, you've got to make. the best of it that you can yeah he's 17 years old but 17 is old enough to know better obviously 17 he's probably pretty impulsive still um you know a younger guy but but my question is what is a 17 year old doing with a handgun in his waistband why why is a 17 year old

you know obviously a lot of people they they have guns in their homes fine you know keep them in the gun safe, keep them locked up, but how is a 17-year-old getting his hands on a firearm to take it to a party in the first place? So I think he's a lot of questions. Yeah, what is he doing taking it to a party? I mean, I don't think, obviously, he shouldn't have a gun. He shouldn't be carrying the gun. But assuming those two things are true, a party isn't the place to think I'm going to need a gun. It's a, you know, it sets it up for going really bad, really quick. quickly. If he didn't have the gun, they might have ended up in a fight. They might have been throwing punches. And I don't condone that either. But it wouldn't have been shooting

and risking the lives of people. So I couldn't agree with you more. And it looks like Zachary's already been in some trouble because he already had a warrant for violating probation. Yeah. He was already, we don't know what he was on probation for, but he was already on probation for something else. Well, and one of the crimes that they've charged him with his possession of a firearm by a felon. So he's got, and felon in Florida, as I understand it, can be the juvenile adjudication of a felony. So you come within that statute, even though you weren't prosecuted as an adult. But that shows that he's got something reasonably serious in his record already and was adjudicated responsible already. So yeah.

So he's already a convicted felon at 17 years old, and now convicted felon yet again. You know, he's innocent until proven guilty, but maybe a convicted felon again and might be going to prison this time around. We'll see what happens, but this is serious business. It's serious business, and he's setting himself up now for a much more difficult adulthood coming forward. He'll have two, we think, two convictions on his record. That's not the way to start your life, to find a job, to, you know, make stable relationships. I mean, he's created two strikes against him before he's really even gone out in the world. So it's really very sad.

So again, I agree with you. It may not be the crime of the century, but it's the kind of crime that is really sad, really unfortunate, and nobody comes out of head here. no definitely not and let's hope that maybe this stops him and uh helps him rehabilitate and not just get worse i agree with him yeah that's my hope and i'm sure his mother feels that way too yeah you feel bad for the mom uh joe petuto thank you so much thank you for having me so let's take one more look at that body worn camera footage of serritch's arrest i have no idea but May 11. It's the main back of your first right person's accent.

Yeah, we're going to go right now. All in real quick. Every time I'll rest of the week. Yeah, am I going to be a posted on Facebook? Not by us. I can't tell you what happened to our house. We have an office called the public information office. See that car with the headlights?

They're uh, it's kind of an issue. this one here right next to it. Yeah, so come on this side. I'm going to give you just a quick pat down, okay? So just come over here and just face the car. You said you have a scrap of paper in your pocket? That's the only, that's the only thing you have. Oh yeah, I got my own bonnet in there. That's the hat, yeah. Yeah. You're good? You good?

And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Annette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time. Thank you.