Florida Man was Arrested for Allegedly Posting “Violent” Threats Against President Trump and The Statement, “America Needs One Good Bullet To Be Saved”

Florida Man was Arrested for Allegedly Posting Violent Threats Against President Trump and The Statement, America Needs One Good Bullet To Be Saved

A Florida man has been arrested for making “violent” threats against President Trump, police said on Saturday.

Shannon Depararro Atkins allegedly made social media posts targeting the commander-in-chief.

Atkins, 46, was arrested shortly before 7:30 p.m. Friday during a traffic stop in West Palm Beach, where he was allegedly discovered with three baggies of cocaine in his pocket, according to police.

Authorities arrested Atkins on January 19 after receiving a tip about disturbing posts he allegedly shared in the days leading up to Trump’s inauguration.

“America needs one good bullet to be saved,” Atkins allegedly wrote on Facebook on January 19, a day before Trump was sworn in for his second term.

Two hours later, on the same day, Atkins posted on his Facebook page that he had been kicked out of Elon Musk’s X.

“I’ve been banned from “X”, because I said I hope and pray someone kills him,” he wrote, referring to Trump. “History is meant to repeat itself. We haven’t had any assassinations in years.”

He allegedly continued, writing later in the day, “Bullets please.” Please, Jesus! “Save America” is written over an image of a meme calling inauguration day a “day of mourning.”

“That gives you a flavor of some of the posts that this gentleman posted,” West Palm Beach Police Chief Tony Araujo said at a news conference, adding that the posts included “violent rhetoric.”

Atkins had been expressing his dissatisfaction with Trump for months, but the volume increased dramatically in the run-up to and after the inauguration.

On Friday, shortly before the arrest, he reposted a meme of the president with his late first wife, Ivanka Trump, with the caption, “I hope they get back together soon.”

Atkins allegedly included a row of smiling emojis in the post.

Atkins allegedly admitted to the violent social media posts, but insisted he was only “joking.”

Social media post by Shannon Atkins referring to President Donald Trump
“Bullets please. Please Jesus! Save America,” Atkins wrote online.

“Folks, this is not a joke. Nothing of that sort is a joke,” Araujo said.

“In today’s climate, you simply cannot say things like this. There are numerous incidents and examples of when these threats become real. And we take them very seriously.

Voter registration records show that Atkins has voted Democrat since at least 2008.

He is thought to own Big Mama’s House of Sweets, a bakery in West Palm Beach.

Atkins was being held at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Main Detention Center on a drug possession charge as well as one count of written or electronic threats to kill, cause bodily harm, or carry out a mass shooting or act of terrorism, a second-degree felony.

The Secret Service will decide whether to pursue additional federal charges for Atkins’ social media threats.

The arrest comes months after Trump survived two assassination attempts, including a shooting at a Butler, Pennsylvania rally in July that grazed the then-candidate’s ear.

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