Richmond and Virginia State Police got into a confrontation with a group of people and arrested two individuals Thursday night for obstructing justice by not showing identification, according to Richmond resident Jimmie Lee Jarvis who witnessed the event firsthand.
Yet another incident between police and locals has taken place in Richmond, this time outside of GWARbar, a local heavy-metal themed bar in the Jackson Ward neighborhood.
In an interview with The Virginia Star Jarvis recounted the situation with police that eventually turned violent, creating a timeline of events that took place in just under two hours.
Before any Richmond or state police officers arrived, Jarvis and some friends were at GWARbar having drinks on the restaurant’s back patio/parking lot a little before 10 p.m., Jarvis said.
According to Jarvis, officers began arriving outside the bar around 10:15 p.m. but did not immediately approach or speak with Jarvis, his friends or other people there.
“At first, I counted 15 RPD officers and a half dozen vehicles show up, and then shortly after that many more RPD officers came as well as a couple dozen Virginia state police officers in Riot gear,” Jarvis said.
Police officers came to GWARbar because of a flyer, picture below, that had circulated on social media, which said that a Black Lives Matter protest was going to start at the bar at 10 p.m., according to Jarvis.
Jarvis, who posted a photo of the flyer online, said he was skeptical of whether the poster was authentic or not, noting that he estimated there were about 15 people present when the protest was supposed to begin.
The Star reached out to the Black Lives Matter organization asking if there were any protests scheduled for Thursday in Richmond, but did not get a response.
The actual physical confrontation began shortly after officers walked onto GWARbar property to speak with the small crowd, Jarvis said.
“About ten officers ended up walking onto the GWARbar property in that combined patio-parking lot area and started demanding that everybody there provide IDs,” Jarvis said. “The lead officer, who would not give his rank or badge number or name, he just seemed to be the guy calling the shots, [that officer] said that because the flyer had gone out and because there had been previous nights of property damage that he was investigating a crime and that he had justification to make everybody there produce their identification.”
Once officers asked the group to produce their IDs and they did not comply, the lead officer singled out one man among the crowd. After that man still did not comply with the officer’s demands to see identification, the lead officer said he was under arrest of obstruction of justice, Jarvis said.
According to Jarvis’ account, the officer then grabbed the man and took him into police custody. Once this happened, other people in the crowd began reacting. That is when more police officers came up to the group, tackling, handcuffing and then taking two people away, Jarvis said.
In a release sent to The Star, Richmond police said that officers arrived at the scene at 10:20 p.m., giving accuracy to Jarvis’ timeline, to monitor the area because they were aware of the protest flyer.
After the confrontation with officers, two women, Knisya Johnson and Alice Minium (pictured above), were arrested. Police charged Minium with conspiracy to incite a riot and charged Johnson with assault on a law enforcement officer, police said.
Video taken by Jarvis from the crowd and posted to Twitter show an officer grabbing a woman and Jarvis himself being pushed to the ground by police.
https://twitter.com/JLJLovesRVA/status/1296646952608763904
It is unclear if the woman in Jarvis’ video is Minium.
After the initial altercation between Richmond and state police and individuals in the crowd, the officers left and then came back, eventually standing on the street outside the bar, according to Jarvis.
“At the height of police presence, I counted 60 and there were officers around the corners and stuff that I couldn’t see,” Jarvis said. “So, there were at least 60 combined RPD and Virginia state police officers.”
At 11:58 p.m. the officers standing outside the bar property left, but continued to drive around the block in their vehicles, according to Jarvis, who remained at the bar until after midnight.
GWARbar did not respond to a request for comment from The Star.
This incident occurred not far from Richmond Councilwoman and mayoral candidate Kim Gray’s home, where protestors have gathered in large numbers in the past to voice their displeasure with Gray’s actions and opinions.
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Jacob Taylor is a reporter at The Virginia Star and the Star News Network. Follow Jacob on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “GWARbar Arrests” by Jimmie Lee Jarvis.
