He went to see the ‘Avengers’ with a backpack and a message, cops say. He landed in jail

A Bradenton man is facing charges in Washington state after he made a bomb threat Sunday during a showing of the movie “Avengers: Endgame,” forcing the evacuation of a Regal Cinemas movie theater, according to police.

Ryan Nolan MacFarlane, 27, was arrested by police in Bellingham, a coastal city in northern Washington state, and charged with making threats to bomb property. He remained in jail Wednesday morning on a $25,000 bond, according to the Bellingham Herald.

MacFarlane, who is from Bradenton, told Bellingham police that a few months ago he moved to Whatcom County, where Bellingham is located, and is a transient.

When questioned by police after his arrest, MacFarlane admitted that he had seen the movie the prior day and planned the threat after finding “a pivotal scene that he decided would be the perfect moment to share his message,” according to police and court records obtained by the Bellingham Herald.

That message, according to what he later wrote for police was, “Hear me you young men, 2,000 years ago the world was not overturned by vengeance but by love, so enjoy worshiping your false idols which neither see, hear nor walk. For Jesus Christ lives.”

MacFarlane said he was protesting “escapism,” which is defined by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary as the “habitual diversion of the mind to purely imaginative activity or entertainment as an escape from reality or routine.”

According to witnesses, MacFarlane was wearing a camouflage jacket, jeans and tactical black boots and carrying a backpack, when he stood up in the theater and said, “This bomb will help you get to the end,” according to police.

A police K-9 and a robot were used by the Bellingham Police Department’s Hazardous Devices Unit to determine there was not a bomb in the backpack.

MacFarlane denied ever mentioning he had a bomb, police said.

In 2013, authorities obtained an arrest warrant charging MacFarlane with food stamp fraud following an investigation by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office. MacFarlane was never arrested, however, and the case was later closed.

According to the complaint filed in court, MacFarlane was one of 53 people who sold his food stamps card to a man who in turn used it buy food in bulk at Sam’s Club in Bradenton and later sold it at his restaurants.

MacFarlane’s criminal history also includes an arrest in June 2010 by the St. Augustine Police Department on a charge of false report of a fire alarm.

Residents in the Seaside at Anastasia condos in St. Augustine beach were forced to evacuate their homes in the early morning hours of June 16, 2010, after the fire alarms were intentionally set off. MacFarlane admitted to firefighters that he had pulled one of the alarms, as he tried to defend that he had not pulled all of them.

MacFarlane, who along with another potential suspect, was intoxicated at the time was arrested. He later entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the state attorney’s office.

Under that agreement, he sent a letter of apology to St. John’s County Fire Rescue and the Seaside at Anastasia condos. underwent substance abuse evaluation, completed 25 hours of community services hours and paid fees in exchange for the charge later being dropped.

Information from the Bellingham (Wash.) Herald is included in this report.