KNOXVILLE, Tenn — A Knoxville activist who was publicly arrested by Knox County deputies in January after attending a community forum has had one of their charges dropped.
Nzinga Amani is no longer facing a charge for inciting to riot after a court dismissed it on Wednesday. Amani formerly went by the name David Hayes at the time of the arrest. Amani is a leading activist in Knoxville. They were a founding force of the City Council Movement and later ran for a spot on Knoxville City Council.
Amani might still face prosecution on two other charges for assault on a first responder and obstructing traffic, which were bound over to a grand jury Wednesday.
On January 7, Amani attended a public forum where people could give input on the search for Knoxville's next police chief. Amani said they sought to raise awareness about the death of a man in KPD custody.
The arrest report from the Knox County Sheriff's Office said an officer at the City-County Building, Deputy Ronald Chaperon, was told Amani had a warrant out for their arrest. The warrant was for the traffic obstruction charge, which happened the night of April 21, 2021 during community protests in front of the Knoxville Police Department headquarters after the police shooting of Austin-East Magnet High School student Anthony Thompson Jr.
The arrest report said deputies were asked to wait until the meeting had concluded before taking Amani into custody. The arrest that followed was captured on camera by others in the building.
In the video, Amani is seen asking officers why they were being arrested. Deputies did not answer them and told them to "stop resisting" while holding them down. Amani called the arrest "abusive," saying they were not resisting.
"When police try to arrest you for unjust reasons, you just sit down. You go limp. It's not resisting arrest, it's passive. And I pursued that tactic," Amani said days after the arrest.
In the report, deputies said they were approached by several supporters while taking Hayes into custody. In videos from attendees though, few are seen near the deputies.
Deputy Chaperon and two others started carrying Amani down the hallway, saying they were "physically non-compliant." They said Amani was taken into the Court Services Office to wait for transportation.
There, deputies said they told Amani to take a seat. They said Amani refused, instead sitting on the ground near a chair. Later, Chaperon said Amani sat in a chair and spat in his face, so the deputy redirected their face toward the corner of the wall. He also said he asked for a spit mask while holding Amani's head to the side.
While their head was being held, deputies said Amani kicked their feet out and nearly damaged office equipment.
When transportation arrived with a spit mask, deputies said it was put on Amani before they took them to the elevator. In the report, they said they carried Amani out because they "had an audience" just outside the office and were being "non-compliant."
KCSO said no body camera footage is available, saying court officers are not issued such cameras because "they are required to be in/out of the courtroom at a moment's notice."
Knox County Sheriff Tom Spangler said deputies "were not there in anticipation" of Amani's arrest, however, said the deputy assigned to the post was alerted by a Knoxville Police Department lieutenant that they would attend the meeting and had a warrant for arrest on file from the April 2021 protest.