SARASOTA (970 WFLA) -- It's been a dramatic two weeks since a 14-year-old boy disappeared in Sarasota.
Hurricane Irma has come and gone, stretching police resources to the limit.
Jabez Spann is still missing. He was last seen around 3 p.m. Labor Day afternoon, in the 1500 block of 23rd Street.
Police say he wasn't reported until the following day, because it was not unusual for him to disappear for a day or two. His grandmother said he had gone out to see friends. They treated the case as a runaway situation at first. They sent out news releases on two different occasions as well as social media. They have tried searches and pinging his phone, searching a wooded area with dogs.
"We believe there are people in the community... who (know something about) his whereabouts", Chief Bernadette DiPino said in a news conference. DiPino said they are not ruling out foul play at this point.
The way police handled Jabez Spann's disappearance has been questioned by his family and by the Manasota chapter of the group Black Lives Matter. They wonder whether the teen's case got lost in the shuffle as Sarasota responded to Hurricane Irma, and why he wasn't the subject of an Amber Alert.
DiPino says there are specific criteria for an Amber Alert, and they did not believe Spann was in immediate danger.
Photo courtesy Sarasota Police Department