Super Bowl halftime performer arrested months after protest
The Super Bowl performer detained after waving a flag reading “Sudan” and “Gaza” during Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show in February was arrested Thursday.
Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, a 41-year-old man from New Orleans, surrendered himself to the Louisiana state police on charges of resisting an officer and disturbing the peace by interruption of a lawful assembly, The Associated Press reported. Both charges could lead to six months in prison.
According to the police, Nantambu “deviated from his assigned role, retrieved a Sudanese flag bearing the message ‘Sudan and Free Gaza,’ and disrupted the halftime show by running across the field with a flag.”
During the performance, Nantambu stood on a car used as a prop, branded the flag and then ran across the field before being tackled by security.
“In coordination with the National Football League, troopers learned that Nantambu had permission to be on the field during the performance, but did not have permission to demonstrate as he did,” state police told the AP.
Following the incident in February, the NFL banned the man for life from all of the league’s stadiums. The New Orleans police said he would not face charges, but the state police took up the case.
On Feb. 10, Nantambu told NBC he wanted to “highlight the human suffering” in both Sudan and Palestine via the protest.
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Since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023, nearly 60,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Several thousand people have also been killed in Sudan amid a civil war as millions experience extreme hunger.
“I hope God shifts Trump’s heart to be empathetic and compassionate to those who are suffering in Palestine and do what is right by the Palestinians,” Nantambu said to NBC in February.
Brian McCarthy, the vice president of communication for the NFL, told the AP the league takes disruptions to games “very seriously” and that it is “pleased this individual will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
In an unrelated case, Nantambu is cited as a victim in a May 17 shooting involving former NFL player Antonio Brown.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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