Former NFL Lineman Jonathan Martin Hospitalized After Social Media Threat Shuts Down Harvard-Westlake
STUDIO CITY (CBSLA/AP) – Former Miami Dolphins player Jonathan Martin was taken into Los Angeles police custody after a threatening Instagram post that spoke of revenge for bullying, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
Martin was being questioned by investigators after a post on his Instagram account showed a shotgun and referred to the private Harvard-Westlake prep school in Los Angeles by name, the official said.
It was not immediately clear whether Martin, 28, posted the photo himself and he was not under arrest Friday afternoon.
Later Friday, Martin was transferred to a medical facility.
The closure of the private high school was announced in a message sent out to parents on the school's emergency notification system Friday morning, in what officials termed a "security threat." They said they closed the school out of an abundance of caution.
According to police, no direct threat against the school was made, police said.
Harvard-Westlake President Rick Commons confirmed the Instagram post was Martin, according to the school newspaper's website.
While Martin's Instagram account is private, screenshots of the alleged threat were posted across social media and featured a photo of a shotgun with the text "When you're a bully victim & a coward, your options are suicide, or revenge".
The image also included "#HarvardWestlake" and "#MiamiDolphins" superimposed over the shotgun, along with social media handles for former Dolphins teammates Richie Incognito and Mike Pouncey, and a pair of former Harvard-Westlake classmates.
Incognito was suspended by the Dolphins in 2013 in response to allegations of bullying and harassment -- in part allegedly racial in nature -- against Martin in a scandal that also implicated Pouncey and prompted investigations by the NFL and the Dolphins.
Incognito did not play the entire 2014 season, but later signed with the Buffalo Bills, where he still plays.
Martin retired from the NFL in 2015.
Harvard-Westlake also has a second middle school campus in Holmby Hills, which was expected to remain open Friday.
In the wake of the Florida shooting, there have been a flurry of school shooting threats in the Southland area that have led to multiple arrests.
A student was arrested in a school shooting plot in South Whittier Feb. 16 after a stash of guns were found at his home, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said. His 28-year-old brother, an Army veteran, was also arrested.
Two Long Beach high school students were separately arrested Wednesday, accused of making threats to commit shootings at their schools. On Thursday, a 14-year-old eighth-grader at a Long Beach K-8 school was arrested for allegedly threatening school officials. He was taken into custody at around noon at the Tincher Prepatory School.
A 15-year-old freshman student was arrested Thursday in connection with an alleged shooting threat that forced the lockdown of a Santa Clarita school.
A 27-year-old Norco man was arrested Monday for a threat against a local college campus. A cache of weapons were found at his home, Riverside County Sheriff's deputies said.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
