A Tennessee man has been arrested and charged with threat of mass violence in connection to a series of social media posts he made about conservative commentator Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Larry Bushart, 61, who is from Lexington, Tennessee and is a former police officer with the Huntingdon Police Department, was arrested on Sept. 22 and charged with threats of mass violence on school property and activities after posting a photo in the Facebook comments of a Perry County community group page.
Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems told The Tennessean in a statement that participants on the page were planning to host a Charlie Kirk vigil in Linden, Tennessee on Sept. 23.
Bushart posted multiple photos in the comments referencing Charlie Kirk’s death, which Weems called “hate memes,” but stated were “not against the law and would be recognized as free speech.”
One image, however, caught law enforcement’s attention.
According to Weems, Bushart posted a “Trump meme,” which depicted Trump saying “We have to get over it,” a direct quote from the president after a January 2024 school shooting in Perry County, Iowa that left one dead and seven wounded.
Bushart’s picture consists of an image of Trump, along with the quote, and is attributed to “Donald Trump on the Perry High School mass shooting one day after,” but does not mention the state of Iowa.
The photo is topped with the phrase “This seems relevant today.”
A cross-referencing of the photo done by The Tennessean found this image to be posted numerous times across multiple social media platforms not connected to Bushraft going back to 2024.
Weems said Bushart posted the picture “to indicate or make the audience think it was referencing our Perry High School.”
“This led teachers, parents and students to conclude he was talking about a hypothetical shooting at our school,” he said. “Numerous reached out in concern.”
According to the statement, “investigators believe Bushart was fully aware of the fear his post would cause and intentionally sought to create hysteria within the community.”
The Perry County Sheriff’s Office worked with the Lexington Police Department to locate Bushart.
He was taken into custody by Lexington Police, booked, and transferred to the Perry County Jail, where he remains awaiting bond.
Bushraft arrest one of first in Charlie Kirk assassination fallout
Bushraft’s arrest marks the one of the first arrests connected to social media posts made about conservative commentator Charlie Kirk’s assassination, which occurred on Sept. 10.
A Florida man was arrested on Sept. 13 after he made online threats towards the “tippity top elite” in a Facebook post, later admitting to authorities that he made the posts “in frustration over the Charlie Kirk assassination,” according to a report by WFLA’s New Channel 8.
However, waves of firings and suspensions have occurred across the country in connection to individuals’ social media posts about Kirk, as conservative politicians and influencers push for a crackdown on negative posts about the political podcaster.
More: Charlie Kirk social media reactions have gotten some commenters fired: What the law says
A Phoenix sportswriter, a University of Mississippi faculty member, school employees in Idaho, Indiana and South Carolina, emergency workers, a theater professor and other university employees in Tennessee and a U.S. Marine Corps recruiter and many more have been among the professionals fired, suspended or put on leave over social media posts some found offensive.
Such comments are largely protected free speech, although the First Amendment does not inoculate people against actions private employers or institutions take.
Bushraft’s situation is unique, as he was charged under a state law passed in July 2024 that makes it a Class E felony to make threats against schools.
The law, which has faced accusations of being over-broad in its language, has ensnared many. During the 2024 fiscal year, 518 children in Tennessee were arrested under the current threats of mass violence law, including 71 children between the ages of 7 and 11, according to Beth Cruz, a lecturer in public interest law at Vanderbilt University Law School.
More: Zero-tolerance laws on Tennessee school shooting threats raise First Amendment worries
A week after the Antioch High School shooting in Nashville on Jan. 22, which left 16-year-old Josselin Corea Escalante dead as well as the shooter, Metro Nashville police made 12 arrests for threats against schools in the area.
The law, along with similar state school threat laws, has faced First Amendment criticism for potentially running afoul of Supreme Court precedent.
In the 2023 Counterman v. Colorado ruling, the court set a high bar for what is considered a “true threat” — a legal term used to describe threatening language not covered by the First Amendment.
The ruling determined that a “true threat” requires proof that the speaker consciously disregarded a “substantial risk” that their speech would cause fear or harm to others, and states that the recklessness of the speech must be judged by the speaker’s awareness of the risk, and not the listener’s perception of the threat.
The ruling cautioned that without legal protections for “unintentionally” threatening speech, “a high school student who is still learning norms around appropriate language” could “easily go to prison” for “unreflectingly using language he read in an online forum.”
The USA TODAY Network – The South region’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners.
Have a story to tell? Reach Angele Latham by email at alatham@gannett.com, or follow her on Twitter at @angele_latham
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TN man arrested in connection to social media posts about Charlie Kirk
