This story has been updated. 

Decatur, GA — City Schools of Decatur is investigating a video that shows the son of a Decatur High administrator making racist threats.

It is the latest incident involving a video of a Decatur High student using a racial slur, but this video also includes a threat to the African American community.

The video shows the student holding a toy gun while saying he will use it to “kill n******.”

Octavia Bowman, who is black and who has a son attending Decatur High in August, said she is concerned for her son’s safety after seeing the video.

“My son is scared,” she said. “I’m scared for him. The black city of Decatur community is hurting.”

Decaturish received a copy of the video on May 27.

The student is the son of Cheryl Nahmias, a Decatur High Instructional Coach/International Baccalaureate Coordinator. He is also the nephew of Georgia Supreme Court Presiding Justice David Nahmias.

In a statement, Cheryl and her husband Eddy apologized for their son’s actions. He was 14 when he was filmed and is currently a student at Decatur High.

“We are embarrassed and saddened by the video of our son that we first saw last night as it started spreading through social media,” they said. “The video was made about a year ago. There is no excuse for his actions, and he will face the consequences from the school system and us. He was not making a threat but was inexcusably trying to make a joke about people who make such threats. We will do our best to ensure that he never forgets the harm and pain his actions have caused. We hope we can eventually regain the trust of our community, especially our black neighbors and colleagues. We will work to do so with no expectation that it should be easy for us.  We are so sorry that our son’s actions have contributed to the racial discord and unfairness that continue to plague our country. We love our son and hope his thoughtless action does not define his life.”

Decaturish left a message with David Nahmias seeking comment.

It is unclear whether Cheryl Nahmias will face any consequences for her son’s actions. So far, the student hasn’t been charged with a crime.

A spokesperson for the school district said the Police Department has been contacted.

“City Schools of Decatur is aware of the disturbing video circulating of a young man displaying a weapon while making a racist, threatening statement,” the spokesperson said. “We can confirm this is a Decatur High School student. Due to privacy laws, we are unable to identify the student or his family. We are actively investigating this incident, collaborating with the Decatur Police Department, and will be taking appropriate action at the conclusion of our investigation.”

Superintendent David Dude did not immediately respond to a question about how the district has dealt with the other videos of Decatur High students that have surfaced in recent weeks.

The superintendent did make a statement on Facebook about the latest video.

“I am at a loss for words, so I am going to share my unvarnished thoughts tonight,” Dude said. “I am angry, disgusted, heartbroken, and so many other things. Again tonight many of us have now seen yet another racist display by a Decatur High School student. As if the racist language is not enough, this time it’s accompanied by a display of a weapon and a statement about killing people of color. What is the excuse going to be this time? He didn’t know he was being filmed? He didn’t know someone was going to post it? He was drunk? High? It happened a long time ago? The gun wasn’t real? I’m tired of excuses and I know so many in our community are as well.”

The video is the latest incident that has inflamed racial tensions within the school district. In April, videos emerged of other CSD students using racial slurs. The school district said at the time that it would investigate those videos and there would be consequences for the students involved. In another high profile incident, a home security camera captured video of a white Decatur High lacrosse player knocking on the door of a black Oakhurst resident for eight minutes while his white friend, a fellow lacrosse player, watched the confrontation. Both of the young men were arrested. The young man who knocked on the door was arrested on a charge of simple assault and the other young man was arrested on a charge of being a party to the alleged crime.

Mawuli Davis is noted local civil rights attorney and co-chair of Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights, an organization that has worked for years to improve racial equity in the school system.

He called the latest video “disturbing.”

“It’s alarming, and it requires some action,” Davis said. “We’re having an emergency meeting for Beacon Hill to discuss what our action will be. White supremacy and the disregard for black life and the black community are at an all-time high, and it’s not just in America but it’s in Decatur. These videos, this behavior, these teens, all just further undergird why we have to continue to engage in addressing white supremacy because that’s at the root of all of this.”

This is a developing story and it will be updated when more information becomes available.

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Federal authorities in Florida on Wednesday charged a 23-year-old sports bettor known as “Parlay Patz” with transmitting threats of violence directed at professional and collegiate athletes and their friends and families.

According to the criminal complaint, Benjamin Tucker Patz of New York used multiple anonymous accounts on social media in 2019 to make threats against athletes, including members of the New England Patriots, several Major League Baseball teams and multiple college basketball and football players. Some of the threats contained derogatory terms and racial slurs.

Patz is charged with transmitting threats in interstate or foreign commerce. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of up to five years in federal prison.

Patz did not immediately respond to phone and email messages from ESPN.

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On March 9, 2019, Patz allegedly sent four Instagram direct messages to an unidentified Pepperdine basketball player, stating, “Your throat will be severed open with a dull knife,” “Your entire family will be beheaded and burned alive,” “I will enter your home as you sleep and kill you” and “Watch your back, you’re a dead man walking.”

In an affidavit, FBI Special Agent Daniel Nowak said the Instagram account behind the threats to the Pepperdine player was registered with an email address linked to Patz. The criminal complaint identifies similar threats made on Instagram against a college basketball player for Arizona, players for the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays, and the girlfriend of an Atlanta Braves player.

The complaint claims that approximately 18 messages were sent from the Instagram account @parlaypatz to college and professional football and basketball players. More than 300 more threatening messages were directed at players from anonymous accounts that authorities believe are linked to Patz.

“Your worthlessness costed me over 100,000$ tonight! Sad!” a Dec. 22, 2019, message from @parlaypatz to a college basketball player for Arizona said. Arizona lost to St. John’s 70-67 the previous night.

Citing betting records from bookmaker William Hill, investigators allege that Patz placed a parlay wager on July 25, 2019, on the Cleveland Indians, four other MLB teams and a professional tennis player. Roughly 45 minutes before the Indians played Kansas City, a Royals player received two direct messages on Instagram, stating, “I will cut open the throat of your baby” and “You will die.”

On Feb. 3, 2019, according to the complaint, Patz posted a screenshot of a $10,000 bet on the Los Angeles Rams against the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII. On the same day, the complaint states that multiple players for the Patriots received direct messages on Instagram threatening to “rape” and “murder” family members.

“His substantial and persistent online sports wagering suggests that Patz may have threatened athletes who played in games on which he had unsuccessfully wagered and lost money,” Nowak said in his affidavit, “or that he may have tried to influence the outcome of upcoming sports events on which he had wagered.”

U.S. attorney’s office spokeswoman Amy Filjones said Patz was charged in the Middle District of Florida because the Rays players were there when he allegedly made threats to them after they lost a home game to the White Sox in July.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Patz would face charges in other districts for the other threats. He had arranged to turn himself in but wasn’t yet in custody Wednesday evening, Filjones said. It wasn’t known if he had an attorney.

“The safety of our players and staff is paramount and all threats are taken seriously,” Rays spokesman Dave Haller said in a statement. “The Rays and the players involved are cooperating with the FBI as the legal process continues.”

Patz gained notoriety in the sports betting community and was profiled in the media after he reportedly won multiple high-dollar parlay bets, leading to the “Parlay Patz” nickname. His @parlaypatz Instagram account was still up Wednesday, including posts about his winning more than $333,000 on 13-team parlay in November.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Former NFL offensive lineman Jonathan Martin is facing criminal charges after allegedly making a threatening Instagram post that appeared to target some former teammates.

What are the details?

Authorities charged Martin with making criminal threats and carrying a loaded gun in connection with a threatening Instagram post made in February, according to ESPN.

The post in question was an image bearing the caption, “When you’re a bully victim & a coward, your options are suicide, or revenge.”

The image featured a shotgun and ammunition, according to the outlet, and four accounts were tagged. Two of those accounts belonged to former Miami Dolphins teammates Mike Pouncey and Richie Incognito.

Another account tagged belonged to James Dunleavy, who attended the Harvard-Westlake School with Martin. Harvard-Westlake was shut down for a day following the Instagram post, and later filed a workplace-violence-prevention restraining order against Martin, according to the outlet.

Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Josh Rubenstein told ESPN that the Los Angeles District Attorney did file charges against Martin.

What’s the background here?

In 2013, Martin’s Dolphins teammates reportedly bullied him to the point that he drove himself “straight to a hospital.”

The alleged bullying and teasing — specifically from Incognito — reportedly escalated into actual threats. The team suspended Incognito after the details of the accusations surfaced, and Martin reportedly sought counseling.

A 2014 investigation revealed that Incognito and two other Dolphins players did persistently harass Martin. Martin joined the San Francisco 49ers that same year.

Shortly after that, the Dolphins fired offensive line coach Jim Turner and head athletic trainer Kevin O’Neill over their roles in the alleged incidents.

Martin retired from the NFL in 2015 citing an injury. A month after announcing his retirement, Martin shared a candid Facebook update detailing his struggles with mental health and suicide attempts, ESPN reported:

Your job leads you to attempt to kill yourself on multiple occasions. Your self-perceived social inadequacy dominates your every waking moment & thought. You’re petrified of going to work. You either sleep 12, 14, 16, hours a day when you can, or not at all. You drink too much, smoke weed constantly, have trouble focusing on doing your job, playing the sport that you grew up obsessed with.

Martin’s post concluded by hoping to encourage young adults struggling with similar issues.

“You let your demons go, knowing that, perhaps, sharing your story can help some other chubby, goofy, socially isolated, sensitive kid getting bullied in America who feels like no one in the world cares about them,” he wrote. “And let them know that they aren’t alone.”

Former Miami Dolphins offensive lineman Jonathan Martin was charged Tuesday with threatening two former teammates who had harassed him in the NFL and with threatening his former prep school classmates, Los Angeles County prosecutors said.

Martin pleaded not guilty to four felony counts of making criminal threats and a misdemeanor charge of carrying a loaded firearm, district attorney’s office spokesman Greg Risling said.

A post on Martin’s Instagram page last month showed a shotgun and referred by name to the private Harvard-Westlake prep school in Los Angeles that he once attended.

The post also included mentions of the Instagram usernames of former Miami Dolphins players Richie Incognito and Mike Pouncey and said suicide and revenge were the only options for a victim of bullying.

Martin left the Dolphins midseason in 2013 after accusing teammates of bullying. An NFL investigation found that Incognito, Pouncey and teammate John Jerry engaged in persistent harassment directed at Martin.

Incognito was suspended for the final eight games and sat out the 2014 season before joining the Buffalo Bills.

Pouncey was released by Miami last week and agreed to a two-year contract Monday with the Los Angeles Chargers

The NFL’s investigation also found that teammates threatened to rape Martin’s sister, called him a long list of slurs and bullied him for not being “black enough.” Martin is black and Incognito is white.

Court documents say Martin “did willfully and unlawfully threaten to commit a crime which would result in death and great bodily injury” of Pouncey and Incognito. Both Pouncey and Incognito feared for their own safety and the safety of their families, the documents said.

Prosecutors said Martin also had a loaded firearm in his vehicle in Glendale, but court papers provided no other details.

The name of Martin’s attorney was not immediately known. Prosecutors said he is due back in court next month and faces up to six years in prison if he’s convicted.

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More AP NFL: https://pro32.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP—NFL

Jonathan Martin has been officially charged with five crimes for posting a photo of a shotgun with ammunition and sending a local high school into an emergency lockdown.

The L.A. County District Attorney charged Martin with four counts of criminal threats, and one count of carrying a loaded firearm.

As we previously reported, last month Martin posted a photo of a shotgun and ammunition and then called out former teammates Mike Pouncey and Richie Incognito.

He was eventually tracked down by cops, detained and brought to a hospital for a mental evaluation.

The former Miami Dolphin player also tagged Harvard-Westlake High School, which went into an emergency lockdown as a response.  The high school has since sought a restraining order against Martin to protect the faculty.

Story Developing…

Former Arizona State cornerback Edward “Robbie” Robinson was arrested on the ASU campus Friday after making violent threats against members of the Sun Devils athletics community, according to a report by Phoenix’s 3TV on Saturday.

The campus authorities claim Robinson, 20, made threats around noon on Friday, which set off a campuswide alert.

The cornerback, who hasn’t been enrolled at the university in more than a year, was arrested in connection to the threat around 8 p.m. on Friday and charged with “making terrorist threats, disruption of an educational institution and possession of marijuana,” according to the report.

Robinson’s bond is set at $50,000.

The 5-foot-8, 172-pound corner was a three-star prospect who received playing time early in his true freshman season at the nickel cornerback and boundary corner positions in 2016.

However, he saw a decrease in appearances as the season progressed, while Arizona State finished with the worst pass defense in college football for the second straight season.

Robinson officially left the Sun Devils’ football program last spring, according to multiple reports.

On December 28, Andrew Finch was shot and killed in Wichita, Kansas due to a hoax that went too far. Swatting is the act of calling in hostage situations and other threats on people and is–as much as I hate to say it–popular with some of the seedier sides of the gaming community. In this case, Tyler Barriss called in a false murder and hostage situation to a random address in Wichita over a Call of Duty match that he wasn’t even a part of. He was contacted by one player, who had gotten an incorrect address from the other player.

Barriss called in the hoax to Wichita police which resulted in an innocent and unarmed man being killed by police officers when they arrived and he answered the door. Barriss was arrested the following day. Now he may face felony charges for the wrongful death. The warrant filed in Kansas says that Barriss is charged with raising a false alarm, which is a felony that carries a penalty of up to 34 months in prison, though the state may decide to file additional charges after reviewing the case.

The most serious charge he could be brought up on would be second degree murder, which carries a 20 year sentence. If they settle for involuntary manslaughter, that could result in a maximum prison time of about 10 years. Barriss is being extradited from Los Angeles where he resides, to Kansas. The Kansas authorities must pick up Barriss by February 2.

Barriss is no stranger to the prison system or calling in false threats. In 2015, he called in bomb threats to a California TV station twice. In May 2016, he was sentenced to two years. He got out in January of 2017 and was quickly picked up again for violating a protective order that same month. He was sentenced to another year in prison, and again got out early on August 24, 2017.

During the month of December, Barriss used his Twitter profile “SWAuTistic” to claim responsibility for numerous bomb threats, including the Call of Duty World League competition in Dallas, and the Net Neutraility meeting that was held by the FCC. He was quite smug about his victories, tweeting “l swatted FCC and MLG Dallas l’m not busted yet. if you can’t pull off a swat without getting busted you’re not a leet hacking God its that simple.”

Brian Krebs, or Krebs On Security, reports that Barriss is a notorious swatter that has called in a lot of false threats, calling him a “serial swatter.” In an interview with YouTuber KeemStar, Barriss was completely unapologetic, saying “it is what it is,” and claiming that he doesn’t believe the death was his fault.

I don’t think that I should not do jail time, but I don’t think I should do life or get charged with murder, that’s all. I’m not saying that I’m saying I shouldn’t do any time at all though, because admittedly yeah I was involved. So if I get caught and charged, then so be it, and I’ll do whatever time they give me. I’ll serve whatever sentence because it is what it is.

At this time, it seems that the only charges being filed against Barriss are those in relation to the swatting death of Andrew Finch.  It doesn’t appear that any charges have been filed for the other bomb threats that were made in December.

[Source: TIME, The Daily Beast]