California school closed due to a threat linked to a former NFL player's Instagram post
- Two campuses of a school in Los Angeles were closed on Friday after a disturbing image was posted the Instagram account of former NFL player Jonathan Martin.
- Martin was at the center of the NFL bullying scandal when he was a member of the Miami Dolphins.
- The Instagram image read, "When you're a bully victim & a coward, your options are suicide, or revenge" and included a photo of a gun and shotgun shells.
- The post tagged the school, former NFL teammates accused of bullying Martin, and former students of the school.
- Police said there is no longer a threat.
A school in California was closed on Friday after a disturbing image was shared on the Instagram account of former NFL player Jonathan Martin, who is an alumni of the school.
Martin's Instagram is private, but a screencap of the alleged post has been circulating on social media. In the post, a gun and shotgun shells are clearly displayed, with the caption, "When you're a bully victim & a coward, your options are suicide, or revenge." The gun is marked with "#HarvardWestlake."
After the Instagram post, two Los Angeles campuses of Harvard-Westlake School were closed due to a security threat, as reported by the Los Angeles Daily News and the Los Angeles Times. Both reports linked the closings to the post on Martin's account.
A description of the nature of the threat, which is described as a social media post, was given to the Daily News and lines up with the screencap of Martin's Instagram story. The L.A. Times reported the threat came from Martin's Instagram account.
Martin's post also tagged two former students at Harvard-Westlake, as well as his former NFL teammates Richie Incognito and Mike Pouncey.
Incognito and Pouncey were accused of bullying and harassing Martin during his tenure with Miami Dolphins, treatment which eventually prompted Martin to leave the Dolphins abruptly during the middle of the 2013 season. Incognito's treatment was said to be particularly vicious, as he reportedly threatened Martin and his family and used racial slurs towards Martin.
The Daily News also reports that no direct threat was made to the school or its students, and that the school was closed as a precautionary measure. Matt Yam, a student at the school, is quoted by the L.A. Times as saying, "Honestly it's not bad. Everybody is calm, a lot of people are leaving now, everything is under control."
The LAPD told the Los Angeles Daily News did not name Martin but did that the suspect had been located and that he is no longer a threat.
"We have confirmed that he's been located - the suspect, in this case," Sgt. Frank Albarran of the Los Angeles Police Department's told the Daily News. "He's not a threat anymore."
Martin's former agent told Business Insider that he no longer represents the former player, but called the situation a "sad story."
Martin's post, and the school shutdown it appears to have caused, comes amid heightened sensitivity towards the issues of gun violence and violence in school's following last week's school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida which took 17 lives.