A Florida man has been arrested for allegedly making “violent” threats against President Trump, police announced Saturday. Shannon Depararro Atkins, 46, is accused of posting threats targeting the Commander-in-Chief on social media. He was taken into custody during a traffic stop in West Palm Beach just before 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Police also reported finding three baggies of cocaine in his pocket at the time of his arrest.
Authorities acted after receiving a tip on January 19 regarding disturbing social media posts Atkins had allegedly been sharing in the days leading up to Trump’s inauguration. “America needs one good bullet to be saved,” Atkins allegedly wrote on Facebook on Jan. 19, a day before Trump was inaugurated for his second term, the New York Post reported. Two hours later the same day, Atkins confessed on his Facebook page that he’d been barred from Elon Musk’s X platform.
“I’ve been banned from “X”, because I said I hope and pray someone kills him,” he wrote in what was taken as a reference to Trump. “History is supposed to repeat itself. We haven’t had an assassination in years.” He allegedly didn’t stop there, writing later in the day, “Bullets please. Please Jesus! Save America” over an image of a meme calling inauguration day a “day of mourning.”
Police moved in shortly thereafter and made the arrest. “That gives you a flavor of some of the posts that this gentleman posted,” West Palm Beach Police Chief Tony Araujo told a news conference, adding that the posts reflected “violent rhetoric.”
Atkins had been vocal about his negative feelings toward President Trump for months, but the frequency of his posts increased significantly in the days surrounding the inauguration. Shortly before his arrest on Friday, Atkins allegedly reposted a meme featuring the president and his late first wife, Ivana Trump, with the caption, “I hope they get back together soon,” accompanied by a row of smiling emojis.
According to authorities, Atkins admitted to making the violent social media posts but claimed they were intended to be “joking.” But police said otherwise. “Folks, this is not a joke. Nothing of that sort is a joke,” Araujo said. “In today’s climate, you really can’t say things like this. We have incident after incident, example after example of when these threats become real. And we take these very seriously.“
Voter registration records indicate that Atkins has been a registered Democrat since at least 2008, The Post reported. Atkins is believed to own Big Mama’s House of Sweets, a baked goods shop in West Palm Beach. He is currently being held at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Main Detention Center, facing charges of drug possession and one count of making written or electronic threats to kill, inflict bodily harm, or commit a mass shooting or act of terrorism—a second-degree felony.
The Secret Service is evaluating whether to pursue additional federal charges related to Atkins’ social media threats. The arrest follows months after Trump survived two assassination attempts, including a July incident at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a bullet grazed the then-candidate’s ear.