Arrest made after Natalie Portman film set faces extortion and shooting threat

Police made an arrest Monday after a street vendor allegedly attempted to extort a production crew for $50,000 and threatened to shoot a gun near the Baltimore set of the Natalie Portman AppleTV+ show, “Lady in the Lake.” 

Baltimore Police Department officials confirmed to Fox News Digital Keith L. Brown was identified as the man who made threatening remarks toward the Endeavor Content crew filming on Park Avenue Friday.

Police arrested the 43-year-old on narcotics charges.

According to a preliminary report, a crew member received verbal threats and said individuals “pulled a gun and brandished it at one of the workers,” before “retracting his original statement.” He also witnessed “a large amount of marijuana” being transported in a duffle bag.

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The incident report stated there was a group of people who “threatened to shoot in the air unless they received the money.” 

Brown informed detectives that he had talked with a crew member and a security manager and was awaiting paper work to receive compensation for lost business on Aug. 26. 

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Police claimed “a local street vendor was upset that he had not been compensated by the production for lost business, since he could not operate his clothing business while the crew was filming at the location.”

Baltimore authorities responded to the “Lady in the Lake” set in downtown Baltimore at around 4:45 p.m. on Aug. 26 after a location manager reported the incident occurred at approximately 6 a.m. 

The Baltimore Police Department arrested Keith Brown on narcotics charges Monday following the incident on “Lady in the Lake” set.
(Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Police Department)

The location manager then walked back initial claims of seeing a gun, and told police that “he did not see a gun but that one of the drivers seen the gun,” and further claimed he “observed a large amount of marijuana ‘10 hours ago.’”

As officers canvassed the area for witnesses, they located suspects of similar descriptions and also found a duffle bag “on the ground zipped up.” 

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Per the incident report, one suspect “became slightly argumentative when asked about being disorderly at the location and bothering the film crew which he denied doing.”

Filming was shut down for the day and the production company reportedly vowed to increase security measures to protect cast and crew members.

Detectives are still in the process of interviewing individuals as the investigation is ongoing.

Laura Lippman wrote “Lady in the Lake” in 2019, based on a ’60s housewife turned crime reporter. She dedicated the novel to the five victims of the Capital Gazette shooting in 2018.
(Leonardo Cendamo)

Endeavor Content did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

The show, starring Portman and Emmy nominee Moses Ingram, is based on the Laura Lippman novel of the same name, and takes place in 1966. Her 2019 book followed the story of a housewife who became an unlikely crime reporter investigating alongside Black activists in the community.

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Lippman, a former newspaper reporter at “The Baltimore Sun,” dedicated the book to the five victims of the “Annapolis Capital Gazette” newsroom attack on June 28.