Martin faces charges after threatening Instagram post

Former NFL offensive lineman Jonathan Martin is facing five criminal charges in connection to a threatening Instagram post from his account last month. The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office filed four counts of making criminal threats and one count of carrying a loaded firearm in public on March 13, per online records. Los Angeles Police Dept. spokesman Josh Rubenstein said a warrant has been issued for Martin's arrest and that police have been in contact with his attorney, multiple outlets reported. Martin had posted an image of a shotgun and shotgun shells on his personal Instagram account last month. The message included in the post read: "When you're a bully victim & a coward, your options are suicide, or revenge." The 28-year-old tagged four accounts, including those belonging to former Dolphins teammates Richie Incognito and Mike Pouncey -- who Martin accused of bullying him. It also used hashtags for Harvard-Westlake, where Martin went to high school, and the Miami Dolphins. Harvard-Westlake School, which shut down for a day after the post, filed a workplace-violence-prevention restraining order against Martin on March 1. The post was made eight days after a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. After Martin was brought into custody following that post, he was placed on a 72-hour psychiatric hold because officials thought he might be a danger to others and to himself, according to the TMZ report. Police found a loaded 12-gauge shotgun, a large knife, an ax and a cell phone in his car, and another shotgun was found at his parents' home. The two former high school classmates that Martin tagged said he had been sending them disturbing Facebook messages beginning in 2016. One message said, "Thank you for being such an --hole to me when I was a kid and didn't fit in ... being (expletives) to me when I was a kid has made me, quite literally, insane." The classmate said Martin apologized in August 2016. TMZ also reported that police said Martin had purchased one shotgun right after he sent the Facebook messages and bought another shotgun two weeks before the Instagram post. Martin was a second-round pick by the Dolphins in the 2012 NFL Draft after playing collegiately at Stanford. He last played in the NFL in 2014 after appearing in 15 games with the San Francisco 49ers.