A performer at Kendrick Lamar’s Tremendous Bowl LIX halftime efficiency in February has been arrested after holding up a Sudanese flag with the message “Sudan and Free Gaza,” Louisiana State Police introduced Thursday.
The performer, Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, 41, of New Orleans surrendered to authorities after an arrest warrant was obtained, state police stated. He was booked into the Orleans Parish Justice Heart on expenses of resisting an officer and disturbing the peace by interruption of a lawful meeting.
State police say troopers started investigating shortly after the Feb. 9 sport on the Caesars Superdome and located that Nantambu “deviated from his assigned position” and disrupted the halftime present by working throughout the sphere with the flag. Safety and regulation enforcement personnel ran after him, and he refused to adjust to their instructions to cease, state police stated in a press release Thursday.
“In coordination with the Nationwide Soccer League, troopers realized that Nantambu had permission to be on the sphere through the efficiency, however didn’t have permission to show as he did,” state police stated.
Neither jail information nor on-line courtroom information listing a lawyer for Nantambu who may very well be reached for remark.
The arrest comes after New Orleans police stated shortly after the soccer sport at Caesars Superdome that the forged member wouldn’t face expenses. Nevertheless it was Louisiana State Police who introduced the costs Thursday.
New Orleans police initially responded to the disturbance, however Louisiana State Police then took over the investigation, partly because of the performer’s entry to a extremely secured space, Louisiana State Police Sgt. Katharine Stegall stated in an electronic mail to The Related Press.
The NFL on Thursday stated it commends the Louisiana State Police for “its diligence and professionalism.”
“We take any try and disrupt any a part of an NFL sport, together with the halftime present, very critically and are happy this particular person will likely be held accountable to the fullest extent of the regulation,” the NFL stated. “Along with the continued prison case, the NFL banned the person from attending any NFL video games or occasions.”
The forged member was amongst dozens of dancers sporting black outfits. He held the flag within the air whereas standing on the roof of a automotive that was a essential characteristic of the hip-hop artist’s efficiency. He then jumped off stage and ran throughout the sphere earlier than being tackled by a number of males in fits.
President Donald Trump was within the stadium for the sport, but it surely wasn’t clear if he noticed the protest.
In a separate case, Nantambu is listed because the sufferer of a Might 17 taking pictures outdoors a celeb boxing occasion in Miami.
Former NFL participant Antonio Brown is dealing with an tried homicide cost after authorities say he grabbed a handgun from a safety employee on the boxing occasion and fired two pictures at Nantambu. Nantambu instructed investigators that one of many bullets grazed his neck.