Former Olympic boxer arrested in South Florida for threatening mass shooting
By Leyla Santiago and Denise Royal, CNN
A former Olympic boxer from North Miami has been arrested and accused of threatening to shoot up a gym in South Florida, according to an arrest affidavit.
Azea Augustama, who represented Haiti at the 2008 Olympics, was arrested Tuesday after putting a deposit down to buy an AK-47 and was accused of three felonies — two counts of issuing written threats to commit a mass shooting and one count of threatening to kill or do bodily harm — the affidavit said.
CNN has reached out to his attorney for comment.
Augustama’s membership at the Boxr gym in Miami was revoked on November 11 after an argument, police say in the court document.
“Something was off. He was just acting a little funny and started acting aggressive,” Mateo Attalla, the owner of Boxr, told CNN by phone.
On Tuesday morning, Augustama, 39, called the police and returned to the gym to get his belongings, according to the affidavit.
“He was escorted in with cops to get belongings and, of course, belongings weren’t there,” Attalla said.
The same day, he made several disturbing social media posts that contained “threats to kill or do bodily harm with a firearm,” a detective said in the arrest report. According to Attalla, Augustama tagged the gym in some of the threatening Instagram posts and included a receipt for a deposit for an AK-47, and later deleted them. Attalla told CNN he immediately notified police of the threats.
Police noted an Instagram profile belonging to Augustama in the affidavit. The profile shows at least three posts with images of the Parkland school shooter, including one taken during the massacre in 2018. One post shows an image of the Parkland school shooter during a court hearing with a caption that appears to threaten the employees at the gym where Augustama had been a member.
According to the affidavit, Augustama also sent someone a message with a picture of one of the potential victims, indicating “he’s first when I get my gun or with something else first (RIP).”
Police say Augustama drove to a nearby pawn shop Tuesday and put a $150 deposit on an AK-47. Detectives had been notified of the threats and arrested Augustama at the pawn shop.
Attalla was not aware of any previous issues with Augustama and praised police for taking action quickly.
“We were able to stop someone who could’ve caused a problem very fast,” he said.
Augustama is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami on a $3 million bond.
Augustama represented Haiti in the 2008 Olympics, according to the organization’s official website. He lost his first-round light-heavyweight match to Washington Silva of Brazil 6-2. According to the website BoxRec, Augustama was 20-3 as a professional boxer, with his last fight in 2017.
The affidavit lists his current profession as personal trainer.
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