After chaos erupted in Panama City Beach and Panama City in March 2022, resulting in the arrest of dozens of people from Alabama, local officials singled out two Alabama men as ringleaders. A year later, court proceedings against them are still in the early stages – but court filings have put the allegations against them into sharper focus.

As the weekend of March 25-27, 2022, approached, law enforcement agencies had been tracking the threat posed by an event being promoted online as “Panamaniac 2: The Final Invasion” or “PCB Takeover.” The Panama City Beach Police Department, the Panama City Police Department and the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, bolstered by other agencies, were braced for potential disorder.

And it came: On Saturday in Panama City Beach, unruly crowds swarmed over roads near the beach, shutting down traffic. A group of people ran through a Walmart, knocking merchandise off shelves and generally causing enough mayhem that the store shut down. In Panama City, police struggled to manage the scene around a club concert that had been massively oversold; even after the show was called off, the dispersal of the crowd represented a headache.

Trouble continued into Sunday, with unruly gatherings again hampering traffic and prompting more businesses to shut down. At one such gathering, where a heavy police presence had already arrived, gunshots caused a stampede. One person was shot in the foot.

More than 160 people were arrested, nearly half of them from Alabama. An arsenal’s worth of more than 75 weapons, including long guns, was confiscated. And within a few weeks, two alleged ringleaders were arrested in Alabama on fugitive warrants: Demarion Ty’Quan Cooper, then 20, of Troy and Rashad Boyce Glasper, then 25, of Wetumpka. Oficials said both were charged with inciting or encouraging a riot.

Each of the two has a pretrial hearing set for April 6 on a charge of aggravated rioting; each has been out on $100,000 bond since April.

In the aftermath of that weekend in 2022, Florida officials strove to distinguish the arrestees from typical vacationers. “These are not spring breakers,” said Panama City Beach Mayor Mark Sheldon. “We don’t want to equate this to spring break … These folks are criminals with guns.”

At the time it was a distinction that was hard to fully accept. If people flock to beach communities in March and April, how are they not spring breakers? Given that the Panamaniac/Takeover postings seemed to target a mostly Black audience, was it their way of avoiding a racial element? Or more broadly, was it just an example of communities aggressively ticketing certain visitors and trying to avoid the “come on vacation, leave on probation” stigma?

Court documents against the two Alabama men spell things out in more detail. At the time it seemed as if their main activity might have been whipping up interest in disorganized flash mob gatherings via social media. But, particularly in the case of Cooper – who also faces charges over incidents in Dothan and Tuscaloosa — they paint a picture of something far different.

Cooper, for his part, has described himself as a performer caught up in the hype around an event planned and promoted by others. He was just a rapper booked to perform, he said, but when things went viral his name was caught up in the swirl.

According to an affidavit filed by the Panama City Beach PD, Cooper and Glasper had been on authorities’ radar since 2021, when the first Panamaniac event generated “unruly criminal behavior, which often times turned violent, which pushed all local emergency services to their limits.” In fact, Glasper was arrested on an outstanding disorderly conduct warrant on March 7, 2022, when he was allegedly in Panama City Beach with others “to personally promote Panamaniac 2.”

“Mr. Glasper has been coming to Panama City Beach and committing problems for years,” said Panama City Beach Police Chief J.R. Talamantez. “He wasn’t new to us.”

The affidavit alleges that on his Instragram account Cooper “has posted photos displaying Crip-related gang signs while also wearing Crip gang colors,” as well as showing off various firearms. The affidavit credits the Dothan-area rapper’s “1LiKoop” Instagram page with more than 22,000 followers, his “LiKoop” Snapchat account with 18,000 followers and his Facebook page with 5,000 friends and more than 8,000 followers.

“Though the ‘Panamaniac’ events are considered an open invitation to anyone on social media,” says the affidavit, ‘intelligence clearly illustrates the target audience of the Panamaniac events are known violent gang members, their associates, and several thousand of their social media followers. It is common knowledge in this day and age that social media influencers, along with promoters, set the tone of behavior once these events begin. These behaviors include, but are not limited to unlawfully carrying and displaying firearms, gathering in large riotous crowds, participating or organizing flash mob style assemblies which oftentimes cause mass property damage, or the total blockage of roadways and parking lots. These actions often lead to dangerous and violent behavior.”

“I’ll be perfectly clear,” said Talamantez. “The reality is, there’s no secret sauce to this. These individuals that are committing these offenses are openly and blatantly broadcasting their criminal actions on open-source media for the whole world to see. From holding up guns to holding up drugs to rhetoric up and down about unsanctioned parties, unsanctioned unpermitted events, from condo scams to, I mean, they’re on social media, showing their face, showing their names, openly committing crimes. So, you know? I think stupid people win stupid prizes. I’m more than happy to show them their stupid prize.”

It bears remembering that the affidavit is a statement of accusations that haven’t yet been tested in court. Evidence for and against them – which allegedly includes videos shared on social media by Cooper and his associates — has not yet been displayed.

The affidavit depicts Cooper as being at the center of several problematic gatherings and actively provoking trouble. Among the accusations:

· Driving a black Charger that was one of several vehicles doing burnouts amid a large crowd in a mall parking lot.

· Participating in a Saturday flash mob in the Walmart parking lot “in which he was recklessly displaying a firearm, and was accompanied by numerous other riotous subjects who were also displaying firearms, and climbing onto parked vehicles.” In this case, the affidavit says, “One particular video, filmed by Cooper, shows an unknown black female in a verbal altercation with an elderly white female, appearing to be in her late ‘60s. Cooper then runs up in the face of the elderly female and tells her to ‘get her f—ing car out of here.’”

· Hyping up a crowd that shut down traffic on Front Beach Road on Sunday.

· At one point, as law enforcement tailed a vehicle being driven by Cooper, two men carrying backpacks bailed out and ran. One of the men, who was 17, was caught and found to be carrying a Glock and an AR-15, both weapons that Cooper had allegedly been seen displaying. “It is believed this happened due to the fact Cooper was aware he was being followed and gave all illegal items in his vehicle to the two males so that he could not be charged with anything once the vehicle was stopped.”

· In the early hours of Sunday morning, says the affidavit, Cooper made a Snapchat post that said, “‘We go gloves and mask and burn the scat make ‘em do they job’ which a reasonable person would interpret to mean a call for continued and escalated violent riotous behavior to all of his followers.”

“I think we have proven and the prosecutor’s office will be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that their [Cooper’s and Glasper’s] actions directly resulted in the chaos that we saw out here,” said Talamantez.

Cooper has an entirely different view. In a “StreetSauceTV” interview posted on YouTube in late 2022, he responds to questions on a range of topics, including cars, music and jewelry. His personality is affable, though he takes a casual view of his own gunshot wounds and his willingness to fire if attacked. “The worst that’s going to happen is that I’m going to get shot again,” he says. “So I’m like, s–t, I’m going to have to do a n—a before a n—a do me.”

At one point he’s asked about getting in trouble. His reply:

“I’m down there in Florida and s–t for a little spring break s–t. I get booked for a little show and s–t out there. So then they doing some s–t like, the promoter who booked the show, their little theme was ‘Alabama Takeover.’ So the s–t go viral, everything go viral, so, there’s some little s–t happening on the beach, they blame it all on me, ‘cause everybody who’s posting the s–t is saying ‘Alabama Takeover.’ They don’t know it’s ‘cause I got booked for this show. This ain’t my event. So everything fell back on me, s–t, they locked me up. But I’m out on bond in Alabama, though, so Alabama locked my bond. So, s–t, I’m in Florida, I bond like [$100,000], I’ve got to pay 5%. I bond out and s–t, s–t, Alabama come and pick up me up. S–t. They ain’t give me no bond. They’re like, s–t, sit down, n—, ‘til you go to trial.”

The legal timeline checks out. At the time Florida authorities sought Cooper’s arrest in Alabama, he already was facing a charge of shooting into an occupied building in Dothan; that incident apparently occurred in 2020. After Florida sought his arrest on a fugitive warrant, his bond on the Alabama case was revoked.

Cooper was still in jail in Houston County in late May when he filed a handwritten note: “Your honor I was trying to see about possibly having my bond reinstated. I am being fasely accused of a crime I had no part in. I have just got my CDL lisence the beginning of March and Im trying to pursue my career. I have a couple of job offers already and have 2 daughters I need to take care of. I was blessed enough to have family, friends and help from the public to post my bail in Florida. Im asking for a second chance. I honestly did nothing wrong and am willing to wear a GPS monitor until my trial date for Alabama. I haven’t been in any trouble at all and Im asking to be reinstated so I could get back to my regular life.”

A hearing on Cooper’s motion to set bond was scheduled for Aug. 24. The motion was denied and he remained in jail pending a trial set for September. But when the trial date finally came, prosecutors moved to dismiss the case “due to victim and or witnesses repeatedly failing to cooperate with the state of Alabama.”

“Yeah, I went to trial, they dismissed my s–t,” Cooper says in the StreetSauceTV interview. He indicates that with a potential sentence of two to 20 years on the line, he wasn’t going to settle for a deal: “I’m like, f— that, I’m going to trial, you got to show me something.”

Another video, posted in late September, shows “Koop” getting together with friends and supporters after his release, enjoying some of the simple pleasures of freedom, such as getting a haircut and a fast-food meal and setting up a new phone. The mood is relaxed, casual and cheerful – though he’s shown moving a pistol from his lap to his pants before getting up from the barber’s chair.

His travails weren’t over. In October, he was arrested in Tuscaloosa. Shortly after 2 a.m. on Oct. 23 (a Saturday when the Crimson Tide football team would face Mississippi State), police became concerned about “a large number of subjects gathering after the bars closed” at University Boulevard and Campus Drive. Four officers, drawn by the sound of an engine revving, closed in on a black 2016 Charger. According to the account filed by one of them, the car was doing a burnout, sliding so that it was pointed “towards the large number of subjects standing on the sidewalk just adjacent to the vehicle, creating a substantial risk of serious injury to those on the sidewalk and those in the vehicle.” Officers said they had eyes on the driver, Cooper, as he “reached toward his right side, and then place[d] a black handgun into the rear passenger floor board area.”

Cooper was charged with carrying a pistol without a permit – a charge that was later dropped – and reckless endangerment. He was released on $1,000 bond. It appears that he missed a hearing on March 1, at which point a warrant was issued for his arrest. As it turns out, Cooper had been arrested in Houston County on March 1 before being released on bond the same day. The reason: In February he’d been indicted on a charge of shooting into an occupied building.

The charge does not represent a new incident. A member of Houston County District Attorney Russ Goodman’s staff said that the charge follows a fresh grand jury indictment in the same incident that failed to go to trial in September. The alleged victim hadn’t appeared in September, the staff member said, but prosecutors had later determined that the person did want to proceed. The earlier dismissal allowed for the case to be renewed, which it was when the grand jury issued a fresh indictment.

Cooper was released March 1 on a $50,000 bond. However, on March 9 the bondman asked the court to issue a “bondsman’s process,” meaning that it wants its client to be returned to jail so that it can be released from the bond obligation. As of March 20, it does not appear that the request has been processed or set for a hearing.

When it comes to Cooper’s status, there’s a disconnect. In his social media posts and music videos, such as the “Drill Up” video he posted this month, he regularly shows himself displaying sheafs of currency.

But in three jurisdictions Cooper, who resides in Ozark, Ala., has filed documents reporting that he has no job, no income and no assets, and thus requires appointed counsel. The affidavit of indigency filed in Tuscaloosa includes a note that “mom helps support him.” Public defenders represent him in Tuscaloosa and Florida. Attempts to reach them for comment were unsuccessful.

The District Attorney’s office in Tuscaloosa said it does not comment on active cases. The same is true of the office of Larry Basford, the state attorney who oversees prosecution of cases in Bay County, Fla.

At this point one thing is clear: Spring Break 2023 will be over and done with before the courts in Bay County, Fla., are finished resolving the aftermath of Spring Break 2022 – including the fate of two alleged ringleaders from Alabama.

“The reality is, we live in a world of social influence and very rarely are influencers held accountable for the people they influence,” said Talamantez. “When it comes to public safety or public concern, they’re broadcasting for unsanctioned, unpermitted events … and basically [calling for people] to gather in the location for the purpose of causing destruction.”

“They’re the ones who are going to have to answer for that,” said the chief. “They spearheaded it, and I think we’ll be able to prove that in a court of law.”