A federal lawsuit accuses Black Lives Matter and several of the movement’s leaders of inciting violence that led to a deadly ambush of Baton Rouge law enforcement officers last summer.
The Associated Press reports DeRay Mckesson and four of the movement’s other leaders are named as defendants in a suit filed today on behalf of an officer wounded in a July 17 attack by a black military veteran.
The gunman, Gavin Long of Missouri, killed three officers and wounded three others before he was shot dead.
The suit doesn’t name the officer, but a description of the plaintiff matches East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Nicholas Tullier, whom Long shot in the head, stomach and shoulder.
Tullier, who was left with brain damage, has been at a Houston rehabilitation hospital since November.
The same attorneys that previously sued Black Lives Matter and Mckesson on behalf of another Baton Rouge police officer filed today’s lawsuit.
Mckesson says he hasn’t spoken to his attorney, Billy Gibbens, about the case and couldn’t immediately comment on its allegations. Gibbens declined to comment.
Long, 29, was armed with a semi-automatic rifle when he killed and wounded the officers outside a convenience store and car wash near Baton Rouge police headquarters.
The attack came less than two weeks after a white police officer shot and killed Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man.
The lawsuit claims Mckesson, who was arrested during one of last summer’s protests, was “in charge of” a July 9 protest that “turned into a riot.” Mckesson “did nothing to calm the crowd and, instead, incited the violence” on behalf of Black Lives Matter, the suit alleges.
