Authorities detain man after Instagram post with rifle appearing to name Ultra Music Festival

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Miami authorities have detained a man who was believed to be targeting Ultra Music Festival in a post on Instagram over the weekend. The name on the account led law enforcement to a man named Rayne Russell, who appears to have posted a photo holding a high-powered rifle, captioned with “Ready for the weekend,” and hashtaged, “#tgif,” “#ultramusicfestival” and, “#mmw2018.” The photo posted pictured Rayne posing with the rifle and an additional handgun with a silencer on the table next to him. It wasn’t long before Ultra’s security team noticed and notified police.

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The photo was tagged in Fort Lauderdale, and police immediately tracked down the suspect and brought him into custody for questioning. According to police, Rayne traveled to Miami from Jamaica for the festival and was posing in the photo with a family member’s legally-owned firearms. After being taken in to custoday, authorities determined Russell posed no credible threat. Ray Martinez, head of Ultra’s security team, recalled October 2017’s Las Vegas massacre in which a lone gunman opened fire on the crowd at Route 91 Harvest Festival.

“Really? Right after the Vegas incident happened? We met together with the Miami Police Department and started our planning right from that moment and looked at the lessons learned — what you can learn from those incidences.”

Russell was said to be released following the event on Sunday. Ultra weekend in Miami coincided with March for Our Lives rallies across the world calling for stricter gun control. In response to the Las Vegas massacre, Ultra’s security team implemented a number of hightened security measures ahead of this year’s event, including an applied focus on social media activity leading up to the weekend.

Via 7 News Miami

Source: dancingastronaut.com

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