Miami felon on probation gets popped after posting gun range video | Miami Herald

 

A Miami teenager on probation for a mass shooting at a Liberty City nightclub was re-arrested after posting an online video of himself shooting a pistol at a Miami gun range, according to evidence released Friday.

Will Campbell, 18, was arrested last month on a charge of violating probation after officers said they found a gun inside his bedroom closet.

But newly released video clips that investigators had earlier been alerted to his penchant for guns: He had posted clips from the range on his own public Facebook page. The page was created under the nickname “Bloodthirsty Pablo Escobar,” a reference to the infamous Colombian cocaine cartel leader.

“Check me out,” Campbell says after shooting, showing off the bullet-peppered paper target of a human silhouette. “Head shots and all.”

Investigators believe Campbell and his friends visited the Florida Gun Center gun range in Hialeah on Jan. 14. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Campbell was not supposed to leave his North Miami-Dade home – his GPS ankle monitor is visible on the video. And as a convicted felon, Campbell was not supposed to be in possession of a gun.

His defense lawyer, Richard Gregg, had not seen the video but said Friday he will mount a “vigorous defense.”

The mass shooting at The Spot nightclub on Sept. 28, 2014 outraged the community, both because of the number of victims and the fact that many were underage, including an 11-year-old. The nightclub on Northwest 64th Street and Seventh Avenue was later shut down.

Investigators believed Campbell shot a volley of rounds at the behest of another teen involved in a gang feud that night.

One teen, 15-year-old Trevon Simmons, survived a critical wound to the stomach. Fourteen others, bystanders trying to flee, were wounded.

Campbell wound up pleading guilty to a single count of attempted second-degree murder. He served only about one year behind bars before being released on house arrest and probation. The reason for the generous plea deal: the state’s case was falling apart because the key eyewitness got arrested upstate and stopped cooperating with prosecutors.

When Campbell was arrested for violating probation, police found a Ruger 9-mm pistol with a loaded clip and two baggies of marijuana inside his bedroom closet, according to an arrest report released Monday.

The videos at the range show Campbell wearing a white T-shirt and baggy green shorts, the same outfit he was arrested in a few days later.

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