Two Daily Caller reporters were arrested as part of a mass detention during the Louisville riots.
Shelby Talcott and Jorge Ventura were covering the riots when police surrounded the group and made everyone get on the ground. A video showed police detaining several people and putting them in zip-tie handcuffs. Talcott and Ventura were arrested despite identifying themselves as press. (RELATED: Louisville Police Declare Unlawful Assembly, Multiple Fires Set)
We are all on the ground right now and police are taking people and putting them in zip tie cuffs pic.twitter.com/eIJJF1t1Ub
— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) September 24, 2020
Daily Caller Editor-In-Chief Geoffrey Ingersoll notified the Louisville Metro Police Department that Talcott and Ventura were working as members of the press when they were arrested.
I’ve now notified @LMPD that both @shelbytalcott and @VenturaReport were reporting for an accredited media outlet and were operating in the capacity of press. My expectation is that they will be swiftly released. https://t.co/BBa1b8yF1W
— Geoffrey Ingersoll (@GPIngersoll) September 24, 2020
The Louisville Department of Corrections told Ingersoll that Talcott and Ventura would be processed and charged like the rest of the people who were arrested. They both will be charged with two misdemeanors related to breaking curfew and unlawful assembly, the Department of Corrections said, for their alleged failure to disperse and go to the press’ “observation area.”
The mass detention came after a chaotic night where two police officers were shot. An unlawful assembly was declared as rioters set multiple fires around the city and broke glass windows.
The two officers who were shot were both taken to the hospital and are in stable condition, Louisville Police Chief Robert Schroeder said at a press conference. A suspect is in custody.
Protests and riots erupted in the city after it was announced that one of the three police officers who were on the scene when Breonna Taylor was shot and killed was indicted. Former Louisville Metro Police Department officer Brett Hankison was indicted on three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree, and officers Myles Cosgrove and Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly are not facing charges.
