ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - An armed demonstrator is accused of throwing an object at St. Petersburg’s police chief on Wednesday night after the crowd was asked use the sidewalk rather than blocking a street, officials said.
The man then threw an object at Chief Tony Holloway and a major, the agency posted on Twitter. Police arrested the man and found he was carrying a loaded semiautomatic pistol in his waistband.
Officers had asked the group protesting police killings of African Americans to use the sidewalk so they could open the street they were on to traffic, the agency said.
Police didn’t release any other details about the arrest, including the man’s name or the kind of object that was thrown at the chief. No one was injured.
Marches in St. Petersburg have been mostly peaceful. However several times police declared an unlawful assembly late Tuesday night when a crowd gathered outside the police department. Officers tossed smoke grenades on the front landing to disperse the crowd. Someone in the crowd threw fireworks or mortars back at the building and police arrested 23 people.
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