Rev. Gregory Drumwright, the organizer of a Halloween Day march in Graham that ended in violence and multiple arrests, is being charged with two felonies for his alleged actions at the march.
Drumwright was the main organizer of the event, which was meant to encourage voting on the last day of early voting before Election Day. The march was broken up when Graham Police officers started pepper-spraying protesters for a second time that day, along with deputies from the Alamance County Sheriff's Office. Then officers began arresting march participants.
Graham officers said they used the pepper spray because the march participants were in the road longer than agreed upon. Deputies started making arrests after confronting a man with a gas can used to fuel a generator that wasn't allowed near the Alamance County Historic Courthouse. A law enforcement agent was reportedly assaulted during the fracas.
Twenty-three people were arrested, including the main march organizers. All of these people initially were charged with misdemeanors.
Now, Drumwright is being charged with felony assault with physical injury on a law enforcement officer and felony obstructing justice in addition to his previous charge of misdemeanor failure to disperse on command.
In North Carolina, felonies are labeled from class A to class I, with A being the most serious crimes. Assault on an officer is a class F felony, which could mean a prison sentence between 10 and 41 months. Obstructing justice is a class H felony and could carry a sentence of four to 25 months.
These charges stem from an altercation with an officer during a confrontation about a gas can and gas-powered generator, according to a statement from the Sheriff's Office.
Two others also face additional charges from this interaction.
Brenden Jamar Kee, 28, of Greensboro, and Samuel Pierre, 21, of Pink Hill, N.C. are being charged with two counts of misdemeanor resisting a public officer and one count of misdemeanor public disturbance. These are in addition to a previous misdemeanor charge of failure to disperse on command.
Drumwright, Kee and Pierre will be arrested again on the additional charges, but they hadn't been served the warrants as of 2:20 p.m.Thursday.
Drumwright released a statement saying he is innocent and will fight back against these charges. Drumwright is holding a meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday where he will announce a peaceful protest for criminal justice reform.
"Truly, there are countless victims of the racialized criminal justice system in Alamance that have braved this systemic practice and lost their battles," Drumwright wrote in the statement. "African American and Hispanic residents have been targeted, torn down, and convicted of trumped up charges and petty crimes that never merited the criminal record they now have. As I face these charges rooted in retaliation for none other than my activism and demand police reform, I am unafraid and will remain relentless in my pursuit of Justice 4 the Next Generation."
