Prominent Florida writer Javier Manjarres, who runs the conservative Shark Tank blog out of South Florida, has been arrested on attempted murder charges.
Manjarres, 43, is well-known to an array of Washington journalists. He’s been a familiar face at CPAC over the last several years. In 2011 CPAC named him its blogger of the year.
The exact charge on the Broward County Sheriff’s report is as follows: “ATTEMPTED MURDER W/GUN/ BURGLARY CONVEYANCE W/BATTERY.” He is being held in the Broward County Main Jail. The report says “NB,” meaning no bond. Manjarres was arrested on March 26 in Pompano Beach. His trial is pending.
The Mirror first learned the news through Peter Schorsch, who runs SaintPetersBlog and is publisher of FloridaPolitics.com. Suffice it to say Schorsch is not overly impressed with Manjarres.
“Pay to play comparisons aside, I hated being lumped in with @TheSharkTank1,” he wrote on Twitter Monday night. “I am publisher with 12+ journos. Hes a lawn guy with a camera. Let’s be honest, @TheSharkTank1 wasn’t nearly as relevant as he was in 2010-12. But he’d catch a scoop every now and then.”
Schorsch tried to show some compassion.
“And I truly mean this, having been in trouble myself, I pray for @TheSharkTank1 that he finds peace at the end of this,” he wrote.
According to Schorsch, Manjarres was arrested on burglary charges in 1995. A report in The New Times says Manjarres served two years of probation for burglary with assault. The short version: He broke down a front door and busted the lip of a man who was dating his ex-girlfriend.
General visitation information for those who wish to visit Manjarres in jail can be found here.
See the details of his “short arrest” form here.
As fate would have it, I did the FishbowlDC interview with Manjarres at CPAC in 2012. At the time, he called himself the “Big Enchilada” and was living in Fort Lauderdale. He bragged about calling people like Marco Rubio, Allen West and Connie Mack his “friends.” He called politics a “cutthroat business.” Let’s hope he didn’t mean that literally.
Manjarres also made sure to tell me he was heterosexual.
Asked if he was always a reporter, he replied, “I was in the clothing business, and I’m straight.”
Developing…
UPDATE: The Florida Sun Sentinel is reporting that Manjarres was arrested for breaking his sister’s boyfriend’s nose and for shooting bullets into his pickup truck. Manjarres apparently became violent after his sister said her boyfriend had grabbed her by the neck during an argument.
UPDATE 2: To make matters more interesting, Manjarres freelanced for Breitbart News between August and December in 2015.