10/07/2016
Prominent Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson was arrested in Baton Rouge during a protest against the shooting death Tuesday of 37-year-old Alton Sterling, Louisiana authorities said.
McKesson, one of the most recognizable faces to emerge from the Black Lives Matter movement, was walking alongside Airline Highway when he was arrested.
The former educator built a national following after he left his then-home and job in Minneapolis in August 2014 for Ferguson, Missouri, to document the rising anger over race relations after the police shooting of Michael Brown.
Police arrest activist DeRay McKesson during a protest along Airline Highway, a major road that passes in front of the Baton Rouge PD
Police arrest activist DeRay McKesson during a protest along Airline Highway, a major road that passes in front of the Baton Rouge PD
McKesson was one of the many protesters angry over the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling by two white Baton Rouge police officers
McKesson, one of the most regognizable faces to emerge from the Black Lives Matter movement, was walking alongside Airline Highway when he was arrested
+27
McKesson, one of the most regognizable faces to emerge from the Black Lives Matter movement, was walking alongside Airline Highway when he was arrested
It was not immediately clear what prompted McKesson's arrest — but multiple witnesses described the arrest as 'physically violent,' the Washington Post reported.
'They tackled him,' Brittany Packnett, a fellow activist, told the newspaper. 'One officer hit the top of his body and another officer the bottom.'
The activist said McKesson, who was live-streaming the protests, had been walking down the street with a group of about eight people — when an officer told him he had been 'flagged' and would be arrested if he left the sidewalk again.
He was arrested moments later.
'The officers won't give their names,' Packnetet told the Post. 'He was clearly targeted.'