A white man was filmed yelling at a group of Black teenagers as he pulled out a gun at a Miami anti-gun violence demonstration on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Identified as Mark Bartlett, he has since been arrested by police and charged with a felony charge of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, Vice News reports.
He called them the N-word at least twice, and the video went viral.
Still receiving details. The earlier video was the *second* time she got out of the car to harass the teenagers. pic.twitter.com/lif03bR3SY
— Dream Defenders (@Dreamdefenders) January 22, 2019
A Florida-based activist group, Dream Defenders, recorded the confrontation as they participated in “Wheels Up, Guns Down,” an annual event that attracts hundreds of bikers and ATV riders to the city to protest gun violence. Bartlett’s actions appeared to be in response to an altercation between the teens and a woman who approaches them earlier in the video.
While she initially complains that they’re blocking the street, she soon accuses one of the teenagers of running over her foot with their bike. “Don’t touch me, you bunch of thugs,” the video shows her yelling at them. It was her second time that day confronting the group, a later video showed. As she begins to walk away, Bartlett emerges from his car with a gun in his hand and asks what happened. She points him toward the group whereupon he marches into their ranks shouting obscenities, gun drawn.
Arrest records indicated Bartlett thought the teens should be charged instead of him, the Miami Herald reported. “Why am I being arrested when those kids are free to ride around?” Bartlett reportedly said. “I did pull out my gun. But I never pointed it at them.”
According to public records, Bartlett has one previous offense: a misdemeanor for violating boating safety regulations.
H/T Vice News
