A Florida man was arrested on Monday after video showed him approaching a group of young Black bike riders with a gun during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day demonstration in Miami, according to local reports.
The incident happened on the Brickell Avenue Bridge, where young people were riding bicycles as part of the “Wheels Up, Guns Down” protest. The Dream Defenders, a Florida activist group, said the demonstration was part of an effort to save their housing community. As rush hour traffic backed up, a woman named Dana reportedly got out of her vehicle and confronted the riders, and video of the exchange spread quickly online.
In the first viral clip, Dana is seen arguing with the young people while her husband, identified by police as 51 year old Mark of Hollywood Beach, walks toward the group with a gun at his side. Other videos that surfaced later appear to show Mark directing racial slurs at the riders.
Police said they received a call about a driver who was armed and following juveniles. Mark was arrested and charged with carrying a concealed firearm. According to reports, he told officers while in custody that he did pull out his gun but never pointed it at the young people, and he questioned why he was being arrested. Baller Alert did not find a public statement from Dana at the time of this report.
Many people welcomed the quick arrest, while others said the charge was too light after the additional videos came out, and called for more serious counts, including assault with a deadly weapon and a hate crime. It remained to be seen whether prosecutors would file additional charges. A charge is an allegation, and Mark is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
