A 26-year-old Ocala man is facing a threats charge after witnesses told Lake County deputies he claimed to have a gun and a badge and threatened to shoot up the Lake County Courthouse, according to an arrest affidavit. The man, identified as Shawn Lorenzo Navarro, was taken into custody after allegedly returning to the courthouse hours after being asked to leave following a disturbance in a courtroom.
According to WKMG, Navarro had attended a traffic citation hearing at the courthouse earlier that day on Nov. 5 and was disruptive in court that morning, leading deputies to escort him out after a verbal disturbance. A Lake County Sheriff’s deputy working courthouse security was later approached by a person who reported Navarro’s threatening statements, per the arrest affidavit. Witnesses said Navarro, wearing a black shirt with red or orange writing across the chest, had claimed he had a gun and a badge and would shoot up the courthouse.
Two witnesses gave written statements describing the same claim, according to Inside Lake, which reported that Navarro returned to the courthouse about 1:10 p.m. and was verbally aggressive toward law enforcement before walking toward courtroom 1H. Investigators say he was heading toward a courtroom when he made the alleged threats. At the time, judges, clerks, law enforcement officers and members of the public were all inside the building, per the affidavit.
Arrest and Charge
Navarro was arrested on a charge of threatening death or bodily harm to a clerk or court personnel and was taken to the Lake County Jail. The seed reporting states he was held on $5,000 bond, while the same report notes elsewhere that he was released on $5,000 bond — the available reporting does not resolve which status applied. The case is expected to proceed through the court system.
What Florida Law Says About Threats
Florida law addresses certain written or electronic threats under Florida Statute 836.10, which the Florida Legislature says makes a violation of that subsection a second-degree felony, covering threats to kill or cause bodily harm or to commit a mass shooting or act of terrorism. The available evidence does not establish whether that particular statute applies to the charge filed against Navarro.
Threats against court personnel have drawn broader attention at the federal level in recent years. A 2022 federal judiciary annual report cited by uscourts.gov noted threats and inappropriate communications against federal judges and other court personnel rose from 926 incidents in 2015 to 4,511 in 2021, according to U.S. Marshals Service data — though that figure describes federal courts nationally and does not speak to any trend at the Lake County Courthouse specifically. The U.S. Marshals Service separately tracks the total number of non-unique threats to federal judges recorded during protective investigations each fiscal year, though no specific count tied to this case was available.
