A 21-year-old Homestead man was arrested Tuesday evening after investigators said he sent racist and anti-LGBTQ messages on Instagram that included explicit threats to kill and harm others. The arrest followed an FBI investigation.
An arrest report identifies the suspect as Paul Vincent Critti, whom investigators allege ran the Instagram account @saltorfresh. The FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received an electronic tip on Oct. 7 from a person who said they had no prior relationship with the account holder and had received multiple threatening messages.
According to investigators, one message said certain people should be killed. Another challenged the recipient to confront the sender and threatened to “paint my driveway” with blood. The sender also allegedly made threats of sexual violence and shared what appeared to be a Homestead address along with an Instagram live-location card.
The recipient saved screenshots and gave them to the FBI. Because of the nature of the threats, investigators sent an emergency request to Meta, Instagram’s parent company. Detectives said the IP address and the shared location helped link Critti to the messages.
Officers found a black Chevrolet registered to Critti near Southeast 33rd Terrace, watched him get into the car and stopped him in a traffic stop, police said. He was taken to a police station, and a judge set his bond at $15,000 after finding probable cause. He faces one felony count of making written threats to kill or cause bodily injury.
