School shooting suspect caught via his Myspace profile

February 24, 2006 12:31 PM

Marcus McKinney was arrested Wednesday for the gang-related shooting of Michael Jacola at Orange Park High School in Jacksonville. Florida. Marcus was caught because left his photo on his Myspace.com profile alongside various comments about belonging to a gang.
posted by tapeguy (40 comments total)

About me:
Wat's Craccin Cuz... first, I am 5'10" and 190lbs... bench 250lbs 8 times and leg press 545lbs 5 times...second I am humerous, respectful, and smart...... for my future I plan on going to the navy in July 2006 and want to become a history teacher after four years in the navy...I use to be a crip for two years, I don't bang nomore... but still hate yall boyz in red, still 5 craccin 6 staccin...I go to church every Wed. and Sunday, maybe one day hope to become a preacher... I don't like most white people, but there is alwayz them few..... one last thang fucc tha police

Metafilter needs to ditch boring blue and take on some silver marijuana leaves.
posted by geoff. at 12:36 PM on February 24, 2006

I didn't read from that link that he "was caught because his left his photo on his MySpace.com profile", I got that the news team had his name from the police after they arrested him and then found the MySpace profile. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, though.
posted by neustile at 12:37 PM on February 24, 2006

I am humerus.
posted by grabbingsand at 12:40 PM on February 24, 2006

I guess MySpace has some redeeming value after all.
posted by Target Practice at 12:41 PM on February 24, 2006

Dave Chappelle:

You'll be walking down the street and you'll see a bunch of black dudes walking, not just any old black dudes, we're talking 'thugs'. And in the group, they got one, or two, sometimes as many as three white guys with them, you ever seen that shit? Well let me tell you something about those white guys. Those white guys are the most dangerous motherfuckers in them groups. it's true, man. there's no telling what kind of crazy shit they've done to get them black dudes respect, but i'll tell you they've done some wild shit.
posted by Pollomacho at 12:41 PM on February 24, 2006

Annoying BG music warning.
posted by signal at 12:44 PM on February 24, 2006

don't like most white people, but there is alwayz them few.

haha what
posted by rxrfrx at 12:45 PM on February 24, 2006

It's sure nice to see a young man that defies the ugly stereotypes.
posted by tkchrist at 12:48 PM on February 24, 2006

I like that he lists Cinderella Story as one of his favorite movies.
posted by brundlefly at 12:48 PM on February 24, 2006

Love a story with pictures! Thanks for the illustration, grabbingsand. Marcus said he was smart as well as "humerus", so he must have meant the arm bone.
posted by Cranberry at 12:48 PM on February 24, 2006

don't like most white people, but there is alwayz them few.

He's talking about Tom.
posted by iamck at 12:49 PM on February 24, 2006

1/26/2006 3:27 PM
MARCUS! do you still work at subway?
aileen

Um, not anymore.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 12:54 PM on February 24, 2006

Now we'll never get to see him on Springer, damn!
posted by fenriq at 1:05 PM on February 24, 2006

second I am humerous, respectful, and smart

No bones, bud: you ain't respectful and you damn sure ain't smart.
posted by five fresh fish at 1:09 PM on February 24, 2006

There's also a site somewhere that lists all the myspace people who have died, and cause of death. Murder is common, if I recall.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 1:09 PM on February 24, 2006

Darn, now I can never commit a crime and get away with it.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:10 PM on February 24, 2006 [1 favorite]

From his Myspace page:

Books: Don't Like to Read
Heroes: Jesus

Are these two facts related?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:20 PM on February 24, 2006

rofl 0wn3d by myspace! Teh l00s3r!
posted by 13twelve at 1:50 PM on February 24, 2006

Books: Don't Like to Read
Heroes: Jesus

Are these two facts related?

If he read, he might find out that Jesus was anti-murder, so yes, probably. On the other hand, JC did have a gang . . . .
posted by JekPorkins at 1:52 PM on February 24, 2006

Jesse: There's this little gem. A little sad, actually.
posted by JeffK at 1:53 PM on February 24, 2006

I didn't read from that link that he "was caught because his left his photo on his MySpace.com profile", I got that the news team had his name from the police after they arrested him and then found the MySpace profile. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, though.

No -- I think you're right. This FPP has it backwards. He was caught and then his MySpace profile/page was discovered by the news team. The FPP should read:

"Marcus McKinney was arrested Wednesday for the gang-related shooting of Michael Jacola at Orange Park High School in Jacksonville. Florida. After Marcus was caught by police, television reports from Fox30 discovered his Myspace.com profile. Among other things it ontained various comments about his belonging to a gang."

posted by ericb at 2:00 PM on February 24, 2006

television reports from Fox30 discovered his Myspace.com profile.

Nice detective work news team!
posted by iamck at 2:02 PM on February 24, 2006

From the linked article:

"There is new information about a teenager accused of shooting an Orange Park High School student Wednesday afternoon.

FOX30 has discovered, Marcus McKinney bears a startling resemblence to a person who refers to himself as 'Marcus' on MySpace.com. Other information on Marcus' website leave no doubt that he is the same Marcus who was arrested late Wednesday afternoon for shooting that wounded 18-year-old Michael Jacola."

He was arrested for the shooting. The discovery of the MySpace profile/page came after the arrest.
posted by ericb at 2:03 PM on February 24, 2006

...and also this one about MySpace related crimes/deaths.
posted by nickyskye at 2:03 PM on February 24, 2006

*television reports reporters*
posted by ericb at 2:04 PM on February 24, 2006

"Some recent reports indicate that since Behl's disappearance and death, the popularity of online networking and weblogging has increased."
posted by nickyskye at 2:21 PM on February 24, 2006

I'm sure LiveJournal and "IRC chat rooms" are breathing sighs of relief as MySpace is crowned the new Social Enemy.
posted by Spatch at 2:22 PM on February 24, 2006

since when do gangbangin' wannabe Jesus-preachers use the Star of David in their tag?
posted by carsonb at 3:27 PM on February 24, 2006

tags. sheesh.
posted by carsonb at 3:28 PM on February 24, 2006

I really don't get how MySpace is responsible for people being idiots. It's always been possible to put up too much info, and MySpace didn't invent anything new - it just happened to become ungodly popular.

Full disclosure: I work for MySpace. But I'm just a backend dev and have nothing to do with any of this kind of issue. I also haven't been here very long.
posted by flaterik at 3:41 PM on February 24, 2006

The most amazing part of this story is that there is a high school named for Nathan Bedford Forrest and it's got a 40% Black student population.

carsonb: the star of david is quite prominent in street gang imagery. The Black Gangster Disciples in Chicago use it:
The BGDs use the six-pointed star, (the "Star of David") as their symbol, which represents life, loyalty, understanding, knowledge, wisdom, and love.
posted by NoMich at 3:44 PM on February 24, 2006

NoMich: no shit? never would've imagined that. gotta link?
posted by carsonb at 3:55 PM on February 24, 2006

On the other hand, JC did have a gang . . . .

JC had a posse. This guy couldn't handle a posse.
posted by mendel at 4:11 PM on February 24, 2006

The most amazing part of this story is that there is a high school named for Nathan Bedford Forrest and it's got a 40% Black student population.

That is amazing NoMich.

carsonb "The BGDs use the six-pointed star, (the "Star of David") as their symbol." Also this.
posted by nickyskye at 4:44 PM on February 24, 2006

I have yet to see a mySpace profile that isn't utterly tasteless.
posted by neuron at 8:02 PM on February 24, 2006

Black People Love Him
posted by matkline at 8:12 PM on February 24, 2006

This space pimped by Metafilter.
posted by NewBornHippy at 8:50 PM on February 24, 2006

Gah, I never heard of Nathan Bedford Forest before. But now I have.

They name schools after murdering, slave-owning Ku Klux Klan members?! What the fuck?

The myspace deaths site isn't in good order -- I couldn't find one single death there -- but by far the number one cause of death was drunk driving. Apparently these kids seem relentlessly committed to killing themselves and other by drinking and driving -- the worst is that many of the dead people had photos of themselves, staggeringly drunk, on their pages.

I'm getting sick of this country.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 10:20 PM on February 24, 2006

This just in: Shooter Has Lame Myspace Page.
Stay tuned.
posted by sophist at 11:01 PM on February 24, 2006

Nagging point: Orange Park High School is in Orange Park, not Jacksonville. Jacksonville's city limits are defined as Duval County (making it the largest city, land wise, in the US). Orange Park, though it borders Jacksonville, is in Clay County.
posted by saladin at 6:36 AM on February 25, 2006