CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) - The Latest on the legal case surrounding the toppling of a Confederate monument at North Carolina’s flagship university (all times local):
11 p.m.
Three people have been arrested following a protest over the toppling of a Confederate monument at the University of North Carolina.
The arrests occurred Thursday night as about 300 people gathered on the school’s Chapel Hill campus near where the statue known as “Silent Sam” was toppled last week.
Authorities kept a few dozen pro-Silent Sam protesters separate from a larger group of counterprotesters who had gathered for a “dance party” to celebrate the fall of the statue.
In a news release, university spokeswoman Carly Miller said two people were arrested for affray, while a third was arrested for resisting an officer. Officials did not release their names or say if they were protesting for or against the statue.
Miller says police told her that they deployed pepper spray multiple times to keep order. There were no injuries reported.
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3:45 p.m.
A fourth person has been charged with helping to topple a Confederate monument at the University of North Carolina.
The university released a new list Thursday of the current total of 14 people arrested in connection with two recent protests.
It says four people were charged with helping to topple the monument during an Aug. 20 protest, while a fifth person that night was charged with wearing a mask before the statue fell.
The fourth person charged with misdemeanor counts of defacing a public monument and rioting is 18-year-old Margarita Sitterson. A phone listing for her couldn’t immediately be found in public records, and a message left for a relative wasn’t returned. Court records show she has a court date in September.
A lawyer representing other protesters didn’t immediately respond to a text message asking if he’s her lawyer.
Nine others were arrested during follow-up demonstrations near the statue’s empty pedestal on Saturday.
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2:35 p.m.
A North Carolina police officer was put on leave after a Confederate statue’s toppling because he displayed a tattoo resembling an anti-government group’s logo.
Chapel Hill Town Manager Roger Stancil issued a statement saying Officer Cole Daniels was placed on administrative leave with pay, effective Monday.
He said people had raised concerns that Daniels displayed “a tattoo that is associated with the ’3 Percenters.’” The concerns caused police officials to wonder whether he could be an effective officer in the community.
An internal investigation will determine any disciplinary action.
The Southern Poverty Law Center says on its website that “III Percenter” groups active in North Carolina and elsewhere are considered anti-government “patriot” organizations.
Daniels was identified from a photograph of his forearm tattoo during the Aug. 20 protest that toppled the Confederate statue known as “Silent Sam” at the University of North Carolina.
A working phone number for Daniels couldn’t be found through a public records search.
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11:40 a.m.
A protester accused of helping tear down a century-old Confederate monument at the University of North Carolina says the toppling was “righteous.”
Raul Jimenez had a brief court appearance Thursday in Orange County court on misdemeanor charges of rioting and damaging a public monument. Two others have later court dates on the same charges of helping to topple “Silent Sam.”
Jimenez said in an interview afterward that students had asked UNC leaders for a long time to move the statue that they say symbolizes racism. He said the community acted when university leaders wouldn’t. He called it a “righteous show of people power.”
Asked if he’s guilty of pulling the statue down, Jimenez declined to say he did it. He said he and the other protesters charged in the Aug. 20 protest plan to fight the charges.
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1 a.m.
Publicly released documents show a North Carolina police chief assisting with crowd control told his officers to stand aside as protesters tore down a century-old Confederate monument during a protest at the University of North Carolina.
Text messages and emails obtained through a public records request show Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue closely monitored the Aug. 20 protest as his officers backed up UNC’s campus police before protesters tore down the statue known as “Silent Sam.”
WRAL-TV was first to report on the documents Wednesday. The 400 pages of emails and texts to and from Blue were later released to other outlets including The Associated Press.
The statue was brought to the ground after several hundred demonstrators gathered, some raising banners to conceal the move.
Messages show that Blue instructed officers “Let’s give them lots of space” and “stay way out.”
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