The U.S. Attorney for D.C. has charged a protester for allegedly throwing a firework at D.C. police officer during a demonstration last month — marking the third individual to be charged with protest-related crimes in recent weeks.
According to U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin’s office, a D.C. Superior Court judge found probable cause for charges of felony assault on a police officer while armed and misdemeanor rioting during an arraignment on Friday. The protester — 26-year-old Alanna Rogers from Baltimore — allegedly threw a firework at a D.C. police officer near Black Lives Matter Plaza during demonstrations on Sunday, Aug. 31. According to an affidavit filed in D.C. Superior Court, the firework hit an officer, burning his pants.
On Sept. 4, Sherwin’s office also filed charges against two other individuals for protest-related crimes. D.C. resident Mankah Wu was charged with misdemeanor rioting for allegedly using his bicycle to “blockade and prevent officers from entering the blocks protesters were occupying” near Black Lives Matter Plaza on the night of Aug. 30 into Aug. 31., according to an affidavit. A second demonstrator, D.C. resident Michael Powell, was charged with misdemeanor destruction of property, defacing property, and misdemeanor rioting at a Black Lives Matter protest in Adams Morgan on Aug. 14., when 42 protesters were arrested.
The charges follow a back-and-forth between local officials and Sherwin’s office earlier this month, which began after the Aug. 31 protests. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser accused Sherwin’s office of lacking the “willingness” to prosecute protesters who allegedly attacked police. In response, Sherwin rebutted the claims, writing in a letter to Bowser that D.C.’s police department failed to provide evidence in the arrests of several protesters over the course of the summer — namely, 41 of the 42 protesters arrested in Adams Morgan on Aug. 14.
But after a meeting with D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham, Sherwin walked back on those accusations, and agreed to move forward on arrests — including those charges from Aug. 14, which Sherwin originally said lacked probable cause.
While Bowser and Newsham have repeatedly claimed that many of the arrestees from protests this summer are “outside agitators,” two of three recent charges from Sherwin’s office are all brought against D.C. and Maryland residents, according to the court documents.
Colleen Grablick