Viral video shows New Orleans police release woman after protesters intervene

The police department explained that she was taken in not as a suspect, but as a witness to a shooting

A woman detained by police in New Orleans was released after hundreds of protesters surrounded the officer’s car and demanded her release.

Biba Adams

Jun 12, 2020

A woman detained by police in New Orleans was released after hundreds of protesters surrounded the officer’s car and demanded her release.

In the viral video which was posted to Twitter, the crowd is seeing cheering after she is let out of the car. The video was posted by a Times-Picayune staff photographer who said that it was not clear, at the time, why the woman was detained or why police released her.

A woman who was arrested near a #neworleans #protest is released after hundreds of protesters immediately surrounded the #police car demanding for her to be released. This is the moment when she steps out of the police car. Video by Chris Granger #protests pic.twitter.com/g9naN9i4RR

— Chris Granger (@chris_granger) June 11, 2020

Other Twitter users said that the practice is rare, but also occurred in Ferguson, Missouri following protests after the police shooting death of Michael Brown.

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From a different angle, another Twitter user wrote that the woman allegedly witnessed a shooting. An officer is heard trying to explain this to a bystander. The large crowd claps and chants, “Let her go! Let her go!”

Here is the first few minutes. She was in her car across the street and a supposed witness to a shooting (as you hear the cop explain). They detained her to take her away for questioning. #neworleansprotest pic.twitter.com/jmjHJnrvhe

— tabula rasa (@mel4nch0ly) June 11, 2020

The New Orleans Police Department later wrote on Twitter that they were responding to a shooting incident in Duncan Plaza where the protests were being held. They wrote that they believe the incident was not protest-related. The woman was not a suspect, but a possible witness who was being detained for questioning.

#NOPD responded to a shooting incident in Duncan Plaza. It is unknown at this time if the people involved were attending the protests. NOPD believes this incident is not protest related. #NOPD used their EPIC training to respond to the needs of our residents.
? @chris_granger pic.twitter.com/dqYGxOTBsM

— NOPD (@NOPDNews) June 11, 2020

According to NOLA.com, the shooting incident occurred at a location near where protesters gathered to listen to city leaders. That is where officers were observed arresting the woman, and the crowd called for her release.

Protests have persisted in New Orleans, as in many other U.S. cities, following the police killing of George Floyd. Last week, some protesters clashed with the NOPD throwing back tear gas that the department used against them.

New Orleans City Council is considering legislation to ban the use of tear gas in Crescent City.

NOPD Superintendent, Shaun Ferguson, told NOLA.com that most demonstrators were marching peacefully. However, he said that some at the front tried to force their way past officers prompting a more aggressive response. In the report, protesters described being struck and seeing others struck with projectiles that seemed to be deliberately fired at people by officers.

After the woman was released, demonstrators reconvened in the middle of the park, where leaders asked the crowd to take a moment of silence.

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