‘You know when it’s a child’: Gainesville Police officers speak on Gators Football player child porn arrest

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) - Gainesville Police officers arrested one University of Florida athlete for child porn. Officers say his excuse for sharing the illegal images was not a valid one.

19-year-old Jalen Kitna was arrested Wednesday after GPD officers received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Before the arrest, Kitna was banned from Discord after another user reported him for sharing child porn.

GPD Public Information Officer David Chudzik says he spoke with the investigators who helped make the arrest. The images shared by Kitna were clearly of someone underage.

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“When I spoke to a detective, there is, you know when it’s a child and according to detectives, this was an image of a child. That was his excuse for it, that he found it on the internet, that is not an excuse,” said Chudzik.

Kitna’s status as an athlete at the University of Florida did not play a part in the quick investigation and arrest for his alleged misconduct.

“This case is getting a lot of attention but our internet crimes against children team has solved about a dozen of these cases that have led to arrests. The timing has nothing to do with it, the timing aligns with others of our cases when we do them,” said Chudzik.

Kitna faces three counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of distribution of the material. Kitna is being held at the Alachua County jail. UF officials say Kitna has been suspended from the team indefinitely.

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