Back in 2018, then-13-year-old Ryan McKenna made headlines for a viral selfie he took with Justin Timberlake during the Super Bowl halftime show. However, this week, McKenna is back in the news after he was arrested in Naples, Florida.
According to TMZ, who first shared the news, the 18-year-old got into an argument with his 15-year-old friend at California Pizza Kitchen and ended up pushing a table. Police told the publication that the shopping center security attempted to escort McKenna off the property, but he became increasingly aggressive and ended up grabbing an officer’s hand when it was placed on his chest to stop the fight. That’s when he was arrested and booked at Naples Jail Center for felony battery on a law enforcement officer and two misdemeanors, resisting arrest and obstruction of an officer.
McKenna’s mom, Tracy, told TMZ that her son wasn’t drunk, as the initial report said, but rather just “horsing around” with his friends. One of the people he was hanging out with pulled the chair out from under him, and that’s when he pushed the table in an attempt to be funny.
“I just thought to myself, ‘I’ll never get this opportunity again in my whole life,” the Massachusetts said in 2018 after snapping his selfie with Timberlake. “I just went for it.”
McKenna’s dad said they realized very quickly that his son was turning into an internet sensation. “My phone started blowing up,” father John McKenna told St. Paul Pioneer Press at the time. “It died, like, instantly after it happened. We had friends from all over reaching out. I couldn’t believe it.”
