Former Olympic Boxer Arrested for Threatening Mass Shooting at Gym

By Brian Jones

A former Olympic boxer has been arrested after being accused of threatening to shoot up a gym in South Florida, according to CNN. Azea Augustama, a boxer from North Miami who represented Haiti in the 2008 Olympics was arrested on Tuesday after putting down a deposit to buy an AK-47 and was accused of three felonies — one count of threatening to kill or do bodily harm and two counts of issuing written threats to commit a mass shooting. 

Augustama was a member of the Boxr gym in Miami, but his membership was revoked on Nov. 11. On Tuesday morning, Augustama called the police and returned to the gym to get his belongings. On the same day, the 39-year-old made several social media posts that included "threats to kill or do bodily harm with a firearm," a detective said in the arrest report. Mateo Attalla, the owner of Boxr, told CNN that Augustama tagged the gym in some of the Instagram posts and included a receipt for a deposit for an AK-47, but the posts were later deleted. 

"Something was off. He was just acting a little funny and started acting aggressive," Attalla said. Police revealed Augustama's Instagram profile included at least three posts with images of the Parkland school shooter. The former boxer sent someone a message with the picture of one of the potential victims indicating "he's first when I get my gun or with something else first (RIP)." Augustama is currently being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami on a $3 million bond. 

Augustama competed for Haiti in the 2008 Olympics and lost in the first round to Washington Silva of Brazil. In his professional boxing career, Augustama posted a 20-3 record, and his last match was a loss to Gusmyr Perdomo in 2017. In a 2012 interview with Boxing 247, Augustama talked about how he got into boxing. 

"I started boxing when I was 15 years old. To be honest, my first passion was American football," he said. "I made the football squad in high school, but decided to try another sport. But from second grade until high school, I was always in at least one fistfight every year. Because of this, my mom sometimes asked me, 'why are you always fighting so much,' so I went into boxing. Once I took up amateur boxing, I won the locals, then nationals, and the rest is history."  

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