Still shot from Facebook video
Ross Bridge security guard
A security guard at the Ross Bridge Renaissance Golf Resort & Spa holds his knee as he moves away from people who came to the hotel on Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018, to protest a Thanksgiving night police shooting at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Alabama.
Two security guards at the Renaissance Ross Bridge Golf Resort & Spa claim they were injured Thursday night by people protesting the Thanksgiving night police shooting at the Riverchase Galleria, a city official said.
One of the security guards suffered an arm injury as he tried to keep the protesters from entering the hotel, Hoover City Administrator Allan Rice.
“He was instructing them they were not allowed to enter and was trying to keep the door closed when the door was forced open,” Rice said.
The other security guard said he sustained a knee injury as he tried to block a doorway to a stairwell in an attempt to keep the protesters on the lobby level of the hotel, Rice said. “Somehow, he was knocked over by protesters.”
Carlos Chaverst Jr., one of the protest leaders, said protesters didn’t injure anyone. He said he was at the front when the first security guard tried to prevent protesters from entering the hotel. “He tried to close the door, while we tried to open it. He injured his own wrist,” Chaverst said. “Nobody touched him.”
Chaverst said he hopes the hotel has security footage that will show he is right.
As for the second security guard, Chaverst said he wasn’t present when that confrontation occurred, but “if he was standing in the way, why would you stand in the way of a couple hundred people coming in the door? You injured yourself.”
A video by one of the protesters shows the second security guard emerging from a stairwell, limping and holding his knee. Some protesters asked him if he was OK, and he told them to leave him alone. The video then shows a large crowd of people come out of the stairwell.
Rice said both security guards were treated by Hoover Fire Department paramedics and went to an emergency room for treatment as well. They both filled out police reports Thursday night and plan to pursue criminal warrants today, he said.
The protesters have taken things too far, Rice said. City officials have said all along they were going to allow people to peacefully protest as long as they didn’t injure people or damage property, he said.
“This is clearly no longer about a protest for truth and justice,” Rice said. “This is about coming into Hoover and injuring people, and that’s something we’re not going to tolerate.”
The protesters entered the Ross Bridge hotel around 8:30 p.m. Thursday and walked around the lobby and halls, chanting and shouting. They were directed to leave the premises and go back outside within about 10 minutes.
They then drove back toward central Hoover on Ross Bridge Parkway and Alabama 150 until a Jefferson County sheriff’s deputy pulled one of the vehicles over about 9 p.m., saying the driver had stopped in the road on Alabama 150 and was impeding traffic.
Chaverst was a passenger in that vehicle, and Elijah King was the driver. King repeatedly cursed at the deputy and Chaverst repeatedly called him a “racist cop.”
King also at first refused to roll down his car window, show ID or sign the traffic ticket he received, and both men repeatedly said they needed to talk to an attorney before they would do anything.
King eventually signed the ticket, and the sheriff’s deputy let them go on their way. The protesters then headed back to Birmingham.
In an interview today, Chaverst took issue with the idea that the protesters are seeking a “war” against Hoover.
During a “Justice for E.J. Community Forum” at Muhammad Mosque No. 69 in Birmingham on Wednesday night, the student minister for the mosque, Tremon Muhammad, talked about a need to protect the black-owned businesses in Hoover as protesters conduct an economic boycott of the city.
“We’re going to have to put our brainpower together to figure out how to get the least amount of casualties of war,” Muhammad said. “That’s what this is — it’s war.”
Muhammad also said the Nation of Islam is not on the front lines in the protests because “the Nation of Islam does not subscribe to the theory of nonviolence.
“If we go out there, we ain’t going out there to play. If we go out there, and we get engaged in combat, … If they touch one of our sisters or hit one of our young people or hit one of the brothers, we’re not out there just to fight,” Muhammad said. “Everybody and everything got to die on sight.”
However, Chaverst said the people actually conducting the protests aren’t looking for a war. The intent is not to harm anyone physically, but if they are met with force, they will respond and act accordingly, he has said.
They are seeking justice for Emantic “E.J.” Bradford Jr., the 21-year-old Hueytown man killed by a Hoover police officer at the Riverchase Galleria on Thanksgiving night, he said. Protesters have said the shooting was unjustified and that the police officer should be charged with murder.
Incorrect statements by police on the night of the shootings that Bradford was the gunman in another shooting, which took place just seconds earlier, have fueled distrust of the police. Protesters say police are lying about the incident and trying to cover up the evidence by not releasing the officer’s body camera video and other videos from the mall.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which has taken over the investigation, has said prematurely releasing the videos could compromise the integrity of the investigation.
