A Cinco de Mayo of celebratory drinking appears to have led country music star Jake Owen to live Tweet an incident resulting in his detainment and handcuffing by a deputy late Saturday in Vero Beach.
On his official Twitter account, a picture of Owen, most known for the country hit 'Barefoot Blue Jean Night', and another man showed them donning Mexican sombreros and drinking beers hours before the incident. The picture was accompanied by two ominous words:
"It's on"
Around 11:30 p.m., Owen tweeted a picture of himself in handcuffs, as he stood next to a sheriff's deputy's cruiser. A tour bus could be seen across the street from where Owen was handcuffed. Along with the picture of himself, a tweet pointed out Owen was arrested in his hometown of Vero Beach:
"I just got arrested in my own hometown."
The person who took the picture and if Owen later tweeted the picture himself was not stated.
Six hours later, a tweet of apology stated the Indian River County Sheriff's Department was simply performing their duties when they handcuffed him, pointing to "too good of a time" Saturday night:
"Y'all I apologize. The IRC Sheriff was doing their job. I love hometown. I had too good of a time on Cinco de Mayo."
Eight hours later, Owen took to Twitter again in four successive tweets to issue a second, longer mea culpa and provide further incite to his feelings on the arrest:
"I want to publicly apologize again for bringing to light a situation that I overreacted to. I embarrassed myself and my family and most importantly the great people of my hometown. The Sheriffs were doing their jobs and I made an immature decision to announce it to the world. This is me talking. Not some puppet that is reciting what he "should" say. I take full responsibility. Again, what's done is done, but I am truly sorry."
Various country music blogs reported several tweets allegedly sent out and later deleted from the account described an incident with a deputy and used critical words of IRCSO involvement in the incident. Such tweets are not in Owen's official Twitter feed. The tweets have not been verified.
The Indian River County Sheriff's Office said that Owen was not charged after the incident and the situation was "a misunderstanding." A sheriff's spokesperson later said no records of criminal charges or citations were recorded for Owen. The official could not confirm nor deny the information about the incident Owen provided in his tweets.
The Indian River County Jail's website inmate inquiry did not list Owen as having been booked into their system as of Sunday afternoon. The jail said no one by the surname Owen was booked into the jail overnight.
The first tweet on Owen's account from May 5 asked of the difference of Cinco de Mayo celebrations, compared to his drinking every other day of the month of May:
"Whats the big deal about Cinco De Mayo. I've been drinking my [expletive] off Everydayo of Mayo"