SARASOTA, Fla. — The Sarasota Police Department is releasing its report regarding an investigation into a potential threat involving the basketball court at Mary Dean Park in the Newtown area of Sarasota.
The investigation started after an employee with the city of Sarasota was given text messages from another resident in the city. The content of the messages “sparked alarm,” and they were then reported to the Sarasota Police Department.
10 Investigates went through the report in which the detective investigating the case mentioned he consulted with the State Attorney’s Office in reference to Florida State Statute 836.10 (Written Threat to Kill, Do Bodily Injury, or Conduct a Mass Shooting).
In the report, he noted that the written threats must be specific and scrutinized to ensure that they do not violate a person’s First or Second Amendment rights under the United States Constitution.
The text message includes: “I afraid it will get violent soon.” “I know. So someone or many are probably gonna die. And I’m not being dramatic. I can’t control this.”
The detective noted that threats chargeable under the written threats to kill statute must specifically threaten to kill, do bodily harm, conduct a mass shooting, or an act of terrorism in a specific way. The phrase “probably gonna die” is too general to charge under the law.
Another text includes, “I’m getting a gun and a gun license and if anyone comes on our property to ‘fetch a basketball’…then they can expect me to protect myself against trespassing.”
This phrase mentions the defendant obtaining a firearm. As the detective noted in the report, the defendant is not a prohibited possessor in the state of Florida; therefore, the acquisition of a firearm would be legal. The issue in this phrase arises from the caveat that an individual would have to come onto her property, at which point she would protect herself. Notwithstanding the possible validity of this theoretical self-defense claim, he explained that this is not a written threat to kill, do bodily injury or conduct a mass shooting.
It is not specific because the phrase “protect myself” is used, and is contingent upon someone committing a criminal act against her in the form of trespassing, the detective writes.
The detective also investigated a rumor that the threats were racially motivated. Since the woman had complained to the city as well about the courts, a search of all of her records did not include anything that used racial slurs.
The detective also interviewed the woman behind the messages, who agreed she shouldn’t have sent the messages and that she was “just venting” when she sent the message. She also said that she never intended the messages as a real threat to harm anyone.
The detective ended the report by saying, “Though I found the messages to be concerning, I did not find probable cause that any of the phrases from the body of the text message thread provided sufficient evidence to charge her with the crime of written threats to kill, do bodily harm, conduct a mass shooting, or an act of terrorism.”
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