Former Miami Dolphins player Jonathan Martin had a gun in his possession when he was detained by police Friday following his disturbing posts to social media, TMZ reports.
Police reportedly detained the former NFL player a day after he posted a photo on Instagram depicting a shotgun and ammo along with a threatening message and the names of former teammates and high school acquaintances.
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TMZ reports that police believe Martin had recently purchased two weapons — one of which matched with the gun featured in his Instagram post. Martin reportedly had a gun in his car that fit the description police had.
TMZ reports that Martin is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation. The Sun-Sentinel reports Martin is no longer being detained by police and that an update on his status was unavailable due to HIPAA laws that provide data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information.
Martin’s disturbing social media post Friday shut down his former high school in California the same day. The post featured a shotgun and shell casings and included threatening comments directed toward the Dolphins and Harvard Westlake High School.
Martin was at the center of the Miami Dolphins‘ bullying scandal of 2013, which sideswiped the team’s season. On Friday morning a verified Instagram account under his name posted a picture of a shotgun and a dozen shell casings spread around with words that read: “when you’re a bully victim and a coward, your options are suicide or revenge.”
The Dolphins, Harvard Westlake, two agents, Dolphin center Mike Pouncey and former Dolphins offensive lineman Richie Incognito were all tagged on the photo. The Dolphins head of security notified the NFL, which contacted law enforcement officials in California.
Incognito, who now plays for the Buffalo Bills, and Pouncey were two of the three Dolphins players whom the NFL’s independent report said created a hostile work environment for Martin, who left the team in the middle of the 2013 season saying he was being bullied by teammates.
The report revealed that Martin had been subjected to racist, sexually explicit, homophobic and misogynistic messages, and labeled his interactions with Incognito, who was suspended for eight games by the NFL because of the investigation, as “harassment.”
Martin, who had been receiving treatment for depression since he was a teenager, according to the NFL’s report, was traded to the San Francisco 49ers before the 2014 season, weeks after the Ted Wells report was released. He struggled as a starter with the 49ers and was subsequently waived the following offseason.
The Carolina Panthers claimed Martin, the Dolphins’ 2012 second-round pick, off waivers in March, but Martin retired before training camp opened in 2015, citing a back injury.
According to the Los Angeles Times, police officials investigated what they labeled a “security risk,” made to Harvard Westlake, but determined there was “no credible threat” against the school.
The Times also reports that in 2015, Martin detailed his struggles growing up and said in a series of Facebook and Twitter posts that he had attempted suicide while playing in the NFL. He also said he had been uncomfortable at Harvard-Westlake as “one of just a handful of minorities” on the campus.
“You learn to tone down your size & blackness by becoming shy, introverted, friendly, so you won’t scare the little rich white kids or their parents,” he wrote in 2015, according to the Times. “Neither black nor white people accept you because they don’t understand you. It takes away from your self-confidence, your self-worth, your sanity.”