Multiple eyewitnesses say that contrary to an official police report, a journalist arrested in Ferguson, Mo., was simply walking on the sidewalk.
There’s no question that protests and tensions swelled in Ferguson late Saturday night, as the community and world at large waits with bated breath to hear a grand jury’s decision on whether to indict Officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown in August.
The St. Louis County Police Department, which reportedly recently hired a new social media coordinator, tweeted just after 1am that it had arrested Trey Yingst, a reporter with online news site News2Share.
@TreyYingst reporter from D.C. taken into custody for failure to disperse. Was asked to leave street by the commander and refused. #Ferguson
— St. Louis County PD (@stlcountypd) November 23, 2014
But fellow reporters on the ground in Ferguson, as well as Yingst himself, dispute the SLCPD’s claim that he was on the street, insisting instead he was legally on the sidewalk.
Police refused to say why reporter @TreyYingst of @news_2_share arrested In Ferguson. Was on sidewalk of S Florissant Rd along from the PD
— Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) November 23, 2014
Police arrested this man after he said he was a journalist standing on the side walk outside the ferguson police dept pic.twitter.com/AG46fMTyOv
— Alex Wroblewski (@alexwroblewski) November 23, 2014
This is false. He was on the sidewalk. #Ferguson https://t.co/VEOzCCWiq7
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) November 23, 2014
https://twitter.com/TreyYingst/status/536441978918305792
The grand jury has yet to reach a decision on Wilson, and will reconvene Monday.
Photo by banspy/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) | Remix by Fernando Alfonso III