Man detained at Ultra for posting photo of himself holding a rifle seemingly targeting festival
The man in question was released and will not be facing any charges...
A man was detained at Ultra Music Festival after he posted a photo of himself holding a rifle seemingly targeting the event this past weekend. You can see the photo in question above.
Rayne Russell was in Fort Lauderdale, FL, — a city about 46 kilometres away from Bayfront Park in Downtown Miami, where Ultra took place last weekend — when he posted a photo of himself to Instagram in which he is holding what looks to be a high-powered rifle. The photo also shows an additional handgun with a silencer sitting atop a nearby table.
The caption for the photo read, “Ready for the weekend,” with the accompanying hashtags “#tgif,” “#ultramusicfestival” and “#mmw2018”.
The Miami Police Department tracked down Russell, who was visiting Miami from Jamaica for Ultra, on the final day of the festival and detained him for questioning in regards to the photo. Police authorities eventually concluded that Russell was not a threat to the public and released him after the festival ended. Police determined that a family member legally owned the guns in the photo. Russell will not be facing any charges.
Ray Martinez, the head of security for Ultra, told a local South Florida news station that his social media command team was already monitoring Russell’s post.
“Great police work by the Miami Police Department,” he said. “We had his picture, we knew who he was, and he had posted it while he was inside our festival, and we saw that post, and we were able to identify the location where he was at.”
In the wake of the Las Vegas mass shooting during a music festival in October 2017, the deadliest mass shooting in US history that left 58 people dead and nearly 500 others hospitalized, acting Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina said the Miami Police Department must focus on the challenges of policing outdoor venues. The security at this year’s Ultra was even tighter, according to the local news report.
“Really? Right after the Vegas incident happened?” added Ultra security head Martinez. “We met together with the Miami Police Department and started our planning right from that moment and looked at the lessons learned – what you can learn from those incidences.”
Watch the full news report from Miami’s 7 News station below.
