A man has been detained following a social media post that showed a gun and tagged former students of Harvard-Westlake School, prompting the prestigious school to close its high school in Studio City and its middle school in Holmby Hills on Friday, according to Los Angeles police.
“We have confirmed that he’s been located — the suspect, in this case,” Sgt. Frank Albarran of the Los Angeles Police Department’s North Hollywood Division said around noon. “He’s not a threat anymore.”
City News Service reported that the post appeared to have been made by former Westlake-Harvard student and retired NFL offensive lineman Jonathan Martin, 28. ABC7 reported that Martin had been taken into custody, but an LAPD spokesman would not confirm this with the Daily News.
The man believed to have sent the post was located in Southern California and detained pending further investigation by LAPD’s Major Crimes Division, Albarran said. He did not immediately know whether the man would be arrested or face any charges.
According to images of the Instagram message posted on TMZ, Martin posted a photo of a shotgun with several shotgun shells, emblazoned with the hashtags #HarvardWestlake and #MiamiDolphins.
“When you’re a bully victim & a coward, your options are suicide, or revenge,” the text of the post reads.
In addition to two Harvard-Westlake classmates, the post also tagged former Dolphins teammates Richie Incognito and Mike Pouncey.
Incognito was suspended by the Dolphins in 2013 in response to allegations by Martin that Incognito had bullied and harassed him. Some of the alleged abuse was said to be racial in nature.
Pouncey was also implicated in the scandal, which led to extensive investigations by the NFL and the Dolphins.
Martin’s then-player representative said at the time that his client was harassed and hazed by other teammates as well.
Incognito did not play the entire 2014 season, but later signed with the Buffalo Bills, where he still plays. Martin retired in 2015.
Albarran said they were notified of the Instagram post Thursday night, which was made by a student who attended the school about a decade or so ago.
He noted that a photo of a gun was shown — though it was not known if the gun was real — and that there was a hashtag mentioning the school.
But Albarran noted “there is no direct threat to the school” and the post “is not even a direct threat to the two former students.”
Albarran noted it wasn’t the intent of the police department to close the campuses today.
“We don’t believe (any threat to the school) is credible either,” he said.
However, the school decided to close both campuses as a precautionary measure, according to LAPD Officer Drake Madison.
“With everything that happened in Florida, we’re cautious,” Madison said, referring to the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland Fla., where 17 students and staff members were killed.
The tragedy has rekindled a national debate about stricter gun control laws.
Staff writer Olga Grigoryants contributed to this report.
