BREAKING: Anti-ICE ringleader Nekima Armstrong arrested over storming of St Paul Christian church

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Thursday morning that at her direction, an anti-ICE organizer behind the storming of a Christian church in St Paul, Minnesota has been arrested.

She said that Homeland Security Investigations and FBI agents arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong, "who allegedly played a key role in organizing the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota." She added, "Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP." FBI Director Kash Patel said that Armstrong was arrested "on a violation of the FACE Act."

 

Also arrested was Chauntyll Louisa Allen, who has been a member of the St Paul School Board since January 2020. She is the chair of the "Afrocentric School/Program Work Group," and a member of the Sustainability Committee and the Equity Committee.

Armstrong, a civil rights lawyer and former president of the Minneapolis NAACP, spoke with former CNN host Don Lemon outside the church about the storming, telling him, "This is Operation Pull Up," adding that it was "more of a clandestine operation. We show up somewhere that is a key location. They don't expect us to come there. We disrupt business as usual. So that's what we're about to go do right now."

She later added, "Demanding justice for Renee Good and letting them know that this will not stand. They cannot pretend to be a house of God while harboring someone who is directing ICE agents to wreak havoc upon our community and who killed Renee Good and who almost killed a 6-month-old baby. Enough is enough. I am a reverend on top of being a lawyer and an activist, so I come here in the power of almighty God."

Armstrong claimed to CNN that "we did not rush into that church. We actually went and sat down and participated in the service. And after the pastor prayed, that is when I stood up and asked him a question in response to his prayer, and then I—and he responded to me. And then I proceeded to ask him about Pastor David Easterwood, and how is it possible for him to serve both as the pastor, and the director of ICE for Minnesota. And instead of responding to me, as soon as I said the name David Easterwood, the pastor said, 'shame, shame.' And that is when I led us in chats [of] 'justice for Renee Good' and 'hands up, don’t shoot.'"

 

In video filmed by anti-ICE agitator William Kelly, he was seen harassing attendees as they sat in the sanctuary. Armstrong and others were seen chanting at the front of the room.

One of the church members who attended the service wrote that the agitators "stormed in right as the sermon started, surrounded the congregation, and started shouting obscenities and their disgusting slogans. As the children started crying, this seemed to enrage one man even more and he started screaming about how we are 'privileged pigs.'"

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