Miami MLK Day Video Leads To 'Enhanced' Charges

MIAMI, FL — Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said Tuesday her office has filed "enhanced" felony charges against a 51-year-old white man armed with a handgun as he confronted a group of mostly black children on bicycles during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day incident captured on video.

The man, identified as Mark Allen Bartlett of Hollywood, Florida, was initially charged with carrying a concealed firearm. Video of the incident was viewed tens of thousands of times after being posted on social media by a group called Dream Defenders Action.

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“When you have gathered evidence that a hate crime has been committed, charging is not only the right decision, it is the only decision," declared Fernandez Rundle.

The additional charges have been filed under the Hate Crimes Enhancement created by the Florida legislature to provide stiffer penalties for a conviction when an offense is motivated by prejudice.

Bartlett now faces three counts of aggravated assault with prejudice enhanced to a second-degree felony, one count of improper exhibition of a firearm enhanced to a third-degree felony and one count of improper exhibition of a firearm enhanced to a third-degree felony in addition to the charge of carrying a concealed firearm.

Bartlett can be seen carrying — but not pointing the weapon at the children — as he approached them on Brickell Avenue around the Brickell Bridge. He can be heard using racial slurs as a bystander twice warned him that he was going to be on the news.

"I am outraged at the reported acts depicted in the videos taken during this incident," Fernandez Rundle said earlier.

Bartlett, who is self-employed, was taken into custody during a felony traffic stop of his Range Rover not far from the confrontation around 5 :40 p.m. on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, according to Miami police. Arrest documents said police recovered a loaded Springfield Armory XD9 handgun from a rear pouch of the front passenger side of Bartlett's vehicle.

"While in custody, the defendant spontaneously stated, why am I being arrested when those kids are free to ride around," according to arrest documents. "I did pull out my gun but I never pointed it at them."

A woman seen in the video was identified by news organizations as Bartlett's girlfriend. She can be heard yelling that one of the children rolled over her foot with his bicycle, saying "don't touch me you bunch of thugs."

Local 10 News reported that Bartlett said he took out his gun because his girlfriend, identified as Dana Scalione, was outnumbered by the teens.

"All I see is 15 people running across the street toward my girlfriend — over the median, toward my girlfriend," he told the television station. "My first reaction is 'I have a gun on me.'

Whether I have a gun on me or not, I'm running to see and to protect my family. I had a gun though. It wasn't loaded. I ran out there. You can see I never pointed it. I never threatened anybody. I just needed it in case something were to happen."

The group that posted the video said the incident is more than "about some white person" using racial slurs.

"These kids were on the bridge to protest the demolition of their homes," the group said. "This is about affordable and public housing in Miami."

Mark Bartlett photo courtesy Miami-Dade County Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation