<p>ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — Police have arrested several people during protests in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, including two journalists who were covering the demonstration the day after a district attorney <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nc-state-wire-shootings-f34de258510be2f3c6332e92d53eec67?utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_medium=AP">cleared</a> sheriff’s deputies in the shooting death of Andrew Brown Jr.</p>
<p>The two journalists who were arrested Wednesday night work for the USA Today Network, according to news outlets.</p>
<p>William Ramsey, executive editor for USA TODAY Network’s Southeast Central region, identified the journalists as reporters Ayano Nagaishi and Alison Cutler. Ramsey tweeted they were released about 10:45 p.m. </p>
<p>Both reporters were wearing bright yellow vests that say “News Media.” A <a href="https://twitter.com/yanonaga98/status/1395174429714419714">video</a> that Nagaishi posted on Twitter showed that they told police several times they were journalists who were covering the event for USA Today and The News Leader of Staunton, Virginia.</p>
<p>In the video, Nagaishi and Cutler ask officers why they are being detained. An officer tells them that they were standing in the middle of the roadway.</p>
<p>Elizabeth City police had declared the protest an unlawful assembly at 8:27 p.m. <a href="https://www.newsleader.com/story/news/local/2021/05/19/andrew-brown-jr-elizabeth-city-nc-protest-reporters-ayano-nagaishi-alison-cutler-arrested/5176430001/">The News Leader</a> reported that police threatened to arrest protesters under a law that prohibits standing, sitting or lying on a street or roadway.</p>
<p>Nagaishi and Cutler briefly walked into Main Street to film and watch one of the arrests happening.</p>
<p>Ramsey tweeted that the journalists, who had traveled from Staunton, “were doing a public service" and that being taken into custody “will not stop them from doing their jobs for readers.”</p>
<p>The News Leader reported that it’s not clear whether either of the journalists will be charged.</p>
<p>Demonstrators had gathered to protest a prosecutor’s decision that sheriff’s deputies were justified in fatally shooting Brown in April because the Black man struck a deputy with his car and nearly ran him over while ignoring commands to show his hands and get out of the vehicle.</p>
<p>Attorneys for the family who watched body camera footage have said repeatedly that he was trying to drive away from deputies serving drug-related warrants and posed no threat.</p>
