MIAMI (WSVN) - A man has been arrested after making threats towards police officers on social media.
Miami-Dade Police took 22-year-old Vernon E. Kelson into custody. He is accused of threatening or making threats to harm MDPD officers, and appeared in court late Tuesday afternoon.
“Sir, you were arrested for making written threats to kill or do bodily injury,” said Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Mindy Glazer, “the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, openly carrying a weapon.”
MDPD said that this all stemmed from a post he made as they were monitoring a social media account in relation to another investigation.
In a video that was posted to his Instagram story on Saturday, the department claimed that Kelson could be seen holding an AK-47 and aiming it a marked MDPD police vehicle, spewing foul language and saying, “they pull us over, they gonna go down.”
Police said, “Kelson was referring to if the Miami-Dade marked patrol vehicle, would try to conduct a traffic stop on his vehicle he will use the rifle to shoot at/the officer(s).”
Police said they knew about Kelson’s account from previous investigations.
After monitoring his social media, they said they were able to track down his car.
They found and arrested him Monday.
After he was taken in, Kelson told detectives the video was about a month old, and “he stated he put it on his story on Saturday, to look cool to his friends on Instagram.”
He also said the rifle was real, but it belonged to his friend and he didn’t have access to it anymore.
MDPD Director Freddy Ramirez spoke out and said he will not tolerate any threats made towards his officers or anyone bearing a badge on their chest.
Kelson faces serious charges.
“Also the police notified the officers to be careful while patrolling that area because of that threat,” said Glazer.
He is expected back in court Wednesday.
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