Chris LeDay, the man who originally posted video of the Alton Sterling shooting. Image courtesy of Facebook.
The man who originally released – but didn’t film – video of Alton Sterling’s shocking death found himself apprehended by police just 24 hours after the graphic video went viral on social media.
As he walked into work Wednesday evening, 34-year-old Chris LeDay said he was arrested and detained by at least 10 military police officers, a few of whom were carrying M-16 assault rifles. Hauled off to a back room, handcuffed and leg-shackled, LeDay suspects his unwarranted arrest was an act of retaliation for the video.
According to Photography Is Not a Crime (PINAC), the Georgia man was initially told he was being arrested on charges of battery and assault. However, when he arrived to the DeKalb County Jail, his arrest warrant mentioned nothing about an assault or battery charge.
“It was just over some traffic tickets from a couple of years ago,” LeDay told the publication. “They said my license was suspended.”
LeDay spent a total of 26 hours behind bars and was only released after he paid $1,231 in traffic fines, US Uncut reports. He admitted to not paying the fines simply because he didn’t have the money at the time and rarely drives anymore.
“I take Uber to work anyway,” LeDay explained. “Even one of the cops on the base said he sees me getting dropped off for work.”
While detained, the Georgia man made sure to keep his Facebook friends aware of what was going on.
LeDay told PINAC he believes police chose to make a scene of arresting him at work because someone in law enforcement was trying to get him fired as revenge for the Sterling video. LeDay, who is an employee at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia, said his boss laughed it off when his arrest turned out to be the result of unpaid parking tickets.
Though he resides in Georgia, LeDay was born and raised in Baton Rouge. The Louisiana native was made aware of the Alton Sterling video by friends and family back home, PINAC reports. As the shocking footage wasn’t gaining much traction, LeDay decided to post the video to his multiple social media accounts, making it readily available to his nearly 13,000 Instagram followers, 6,00o Twitter followers and 2,000 Facebook friends, per US Uncut.
The video soon went viral and was being picked up by major news outlets by Wednesday morning. He was arrested later on that day.
“I wanted everybody to see this video,” LeDay told PINAC. “I wanted it to go viral. The police were already saying their body cams fell off and I wanted to show there was video of the shooting.”
Despite his arrest, the Georgia man asserted that the negative experience will not deter him from continuing to speak out against police brutality.
“We need to diffuse what the cops are doing,” LeDay said. “They want to say that not all cops are bad, but they are not speaking out against the bad cops.”
“It just keeps getting worse and people are getting tired of it,” he continued. “I just want some change to occur.”
That was a harassment arrest.
the one officer that mentioned you being dropped off…and who didn't stop this farce…IS A TRAITOR. we are fast approaching a time when every cop who stop and tries to detain someone will be shot dead for simply being a cop. OH HAPPY DAY!
This is the thing that sucks about BLM. Plenty of white people don't like cops. They routinely exceed their authority and it's impossible to hold them accountable. However when they riot after a violent felon charges a cop or over someone who is drunk, high, and uncooraperative and grabs a cops gun BLM forces all of those other people to side with the cops.
how is he supposed to stop it? and how is he a traitor?
recognizing someone being dropped off doesn't mean they havent broken a law.
When you receive orders to arrest someone you dont get to "stop it" becuz u think theyre innocent. You trust if they are, that will be proven in a court of law.
BLOCK…is a wonderful feature!
get your own damn comment!
10 cops and some with assault rifles over unpaid traffic tickets? That was staged to to make it look worse than it was so that he would be fired or diciplined. Someone in the police dept should be reprimanded for excessive force and man power.
Roderick Ellington i'm another person in the world. entitled to his opinion. you don't have to like my view. but. get your own damn comment. leave mine alone. oh. by the way. block is a wonderful feature.
he admits guilt for not paying fines, he was arrested just like anyone else would be for the same thing. By his posting and it being shared he made the police aware of his location. Now he has paid his fines.
he did it right cooperated, documented what was happening along the way
You are way out of line and should be censored!
Roderick Ellington yes the military police carry assult rifles
Tonja L. Scott-Pate After assaulting a store owner and stealing cigars Micheal Brown charged at the cop, grabbing his gun in the process. Jamar Clark intimidated EMTs and blocked an ambulance from leaving, and when the police showed up he wouldn’t comply and take his hands out of his pockets, resisted the handcuffs and during the struggle grabbed the officer’s gun. After someone called 911 saying they were threatened by a guy with a gun police showed up and instructed Alton Sterling to put his hands on the hood of a nearby car. He wouldn’t listen. He got into a struggle with the cops and reached for his gun.
These were not “innocent” people, and these shootings were all justified. I’m not saying they all deserved a death penalty, but when you grab a cop’s gun or go for you own during a struggle with the cops getting shot by them is an entirely predictable consequence. These deaths were entirely avoidable. And as for as Castile we know nothing about the shooting itself, only the aftermath. Only when more information is available can a credible claim of racism be made.
My sympathies to you Mr. Leday.
This dude had 1200 dollars in unpaid traffic fines, there was a warrant for his arrest , and he got arrested by the air force police. How is this even related to the video shooting? Anything to sell a story I guess.
So alli can say is blacks killing blacks is the problem and many generations on welfair and entitlements have destryed the black family unit. How can you respect life when you have no respect for life. or in this case anything or anyone. The problem lies with the black people not the cops. The cops are out there doing an impossible job against impossible odds. Unfortuntly ingnorance and a divisive government doesnt help.
Brenda Neuhauser
WHAT AN IMBECILE YOU ARE, TO EVEN THINK WHAT YOU SAID IS REALLY REALITY. IF you believe that, you really have drank the koolaid. Good luck with your rose colored glasses.
Dennis Moore your calling names shows how you are so I will take your remarks with a drop of water. May you have a good day even though you will not face reality.
Dennis Moore so uneducated hate mongers should not be on the internet. I think the name for ones like you are Trolls.
Brenda Neuhauser You missed the point that it is way over kill to bring assault rifle carrying police officers to an arrest for TRAFFIC tickets!
Roderick Ellington my understanding is the arrest took place on the base where he worked, This means the arrest was by the MP's and the other police then took custody. I have been on military bases and they do carry assult rifles. So maybe I am not understanding of how the arrest went down. I did not see where they held the guns on him, maybe I need to see more to the actual event.
In reading the article once again I see where he admitted owing traffic tickets in excess of 12 hundered dollars.
I see where he also posted a video that went viral and this gave police his where a bouts.
He was arrested on the military base by MP's and turned over to the local police. I don't see where they pointed any weapons at him.
He also stated he doesn't drive much anymore, so he has admitted he does still drive some on a suspended license.
(Assume) to make an ass out of u and me, that they did it at work in retaliation. Not a fact but and assumption. He didn't have the money to pay the tickets at the time, and has not made an attempt in any way to do so.
Maybe you all should take up a collection to get him an attorney if you feel this was done only because he was a black man who shared a video.
Thank you Chris LeDay. Now if anyone out there with an experience to prove that these people are not the only horse of colour,please allow SOCIAL MEDIA see your video. .