WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A 46-year-old Palm Beach County man was arrested Friday night after making threats on social media to kill President Donald Trump, authorities announced Saturday.
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According to West Palm Beach police, the FBI received a tip from a man in Okeechobee that Shannon Depararro Atkins had made violent posts on social media against the president.
West Palm Beach police confirmed that on Jan. 20, a detective assigned to the FBI Task Force began an investigation into the claims, which led to Friday’s arrest of Atkins during a traffic stop.
According to police, Atkins was pulled over near his home in the 400 block of Pacific Grove Drive just before 7:30 p.m. while driving a white 2013 BMW 750Li.
Police said Atkins had cocaine on him at the time of his arrest.
A flyer released by the police department shows two of the posts made on Facebook. One post was a re-post of a message that read, “Jan 20th is the Day of Mourning for USA.” Atkins captioned his re-post, “Bullets please. Please Jesus! Save America.”
Another post read, “I’ve been banned from ‘X’, because I said I hope and pray someone kills him. History is supposed to repeat itself. We haven’t had an assassination in years.”
According to police, Atkins admitted to writing the posts.
He was booked into the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Main Detention Center on charges of written or electronic threats to kill, do bodily injury, or conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism and possession of cocaine.
The U.S. Secret Service will determine whether Atkins will face any federal charges.
Police say the public can submit photos and video of suspicious activity directly to the police department through the Saferwatch app, but urge people to call 911 for life-threatening or in-progress crimes.