Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Thursday that law enforcement had arrested some of the agitators who invaded a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday.
“Minutes ago at my direction [Homeland Security Investigations] and [FBI] agents executed an arrest in Minnesota,” Bondi posted on X Thursday morning.
“So far, we have arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong, who allegedly played a key role in organizing the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota,” she added. “We will share more updates as they become available.”
“Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP,” the attorney general wrote.
Shortly afterward, Bondi posted that Chauntyll Louisa Allen had also been arrested. “More to come,” she added.
The attorney general also announced that authorities had also arrested William Kelly, the man who posted videos of the incident online on the handle “DaWoke Farmer.”
Allen identified herself as a member of the St. Paul school board and leader of Black Lives Matter Twin Cities in a TMZ interview. She is also running for a city council seat, according to her school board candidacy website.
Between 30 and 40 anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement agitators interrupted a Sunday service at Cities Church, a non-denominational Christian church in St. Paul, and shouted, “Justice for Renee Good!” as they surrounded members of the congregation.
Videos of the incident show the pastor and others repeatedly asking the agitators to leave, and the agitators chanting, “Who shut this down? We shut this down!”
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is investigating the incident for potential violations of the FACE Act, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon announced Sunday. She also mentioned prosecution under the Ku Klux Klan Act.
Armstrong, leader of the Racial Justice Network and a former president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP, told Democracy Now that she does not regret helping to lead the protest.
“We are unapologetic about going into the church,” Armstrong said. She called it a “conflict of interest” for a pastor to oversee “the brutal conduct of ICE agents.”
When asked about the prospect of facing charges, Armstrong called it “hypocrisy” that the Justice Department would investigate the agitators but not the ICE agent who shot Good. She also faulted President Donald Trump for enabling ICE to arrest illegal aliens inside churches with a warrant.
William Kelly, the third arrestee, had dared Pam Bondi to charge him.
“So, you know, Pam Bondi, you want to come and arrest me, you want to come and give me charges, so be it,” he said.
The attorney general posted the video clip of his remark with the message, “Ok.”
Kelly responded to news of Armstrong’s arrest by releasing a video claiming that “the republic has f—ing fallen,” and urging Americans to protest. He said, “It’s time to shut this country down.”
Attorneys for Cities Church celebrated the arrests.
“The First Amendment does not allow premeditated plots or coordinated actions to violate the sanctity of a sanctuary, disrupt worship, and intimidate small children,” Renee Carlson, general counsel for True North Legal, said in a statement Thursday. “There is no ‘press pass’ to invade a sanctuary or to conspire to interrupt religious services.”
“The Constitution protects citizens from threats against fundamental rights by the government, but it also requires government to protect those same rights when they are jeopardized by private actors,” she added. “True North Legal is proud to represent Cities Church and is grateful that the Justice Department for taking violations of religious liberty seriously.”
“The First Amendment protects the God-given rights of every American to assemble and to worship God,” Doug Wardlow, True North Legal’s director of litigation, said in the statement. “It does not give anyone the right to invade a church and terrorize worshippers. That’s a federal crime: the FACE Act prohibits intimidating or interfering with people worshipping in a church.”
“It is outrageous that, instead of doing their jobs and protecting Minnesotans’ rights, state officials like Keith Ellison choose to mock the invasion of a church,” he added. “Thankfully, the U.S. Department of Justice acted decisively by arresting those who coordinated and carried out the terrible crime.”
Wardlow said the arrests “will help ensure that mob aggression like Cities Church experienced will not be repeated in any other house of worship.”
