The man who shared the video of Alton Sterling's killing says he still can't go back to work

By Fusion Staff  |  July 25, 2016 | 3:01pm
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Earlier this month, an Atlanta man named Chris LeDay posted a video to Facebook that a friend in Baton Rouge had shared with him. The video showed the killing of Alton Sterling at the hands of police; it quickly racked up hundreds of thousands of views.

Now, LeDay is questioning whether the posting of that video led to his own arrest and his employer’s refusal to let him back to work.

A day after posting the video, when LeDay tried showing up for work, he was arrested on an allegedly outstanding assault warrant.

LeDay has claimed he had never been arrested on assault charges, and told Mother Jones he had successfully passed through the security checkpoint at the base “at least 15 times.” In the hours following his arrest on assault charges, he was instead booked for failing to pay off a series of traffic violations.

In a series of Facebook posts following his arrest, LeDay said he found the timing of his arrest suspicious. Now, LeDay has decided to hire a lawyer, saying he still hasn’t been able to return to work over the incident because he is being denied a security clearance.

“He’s been punished for being a good Samaritan by showing this video and showing America that we have to look in the mirror and we have to change some things,” said his attorney, Tiffany Simmons, at a news conference Friday according to Fox5Atlanta.

“Anything is possible; however, it is quite fishy that this happened to my client literally 24 hours after he uploaded the video,” Simmons added.

The Dunwoody Police Department, which arrested LeDay, told Fox they were not aware of the video at the time of LeDay’s detainment.

LeDay could not be reached by Fusion. But in a new Facebook post he said he was being beaten down “financially.”

Trezanay Atkins, a member of the team representing LeDay, told Fusion that it was still not clear whether Dobbins Air Force Base, where LeDay works, is still investigating him. She said formal written correspondence will go out to Dobbins this week.

The base did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday morning.

Reached by Fusion, Critereom, the contractor LeDay works for according to his attorney’s reps, said they were not commenting on the situation.

Rob covers business, economics and the environment for Fusion. He previously worked at Business Insider. He grew up in Chicago.

 
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