LANSING, MI June 26 2020– Police are investigating an incident in which a man serving as security for a group of racial injustice protesters allegedly pointed an assault-style rifle at a man on a motorcycle.

According to a protest organizer Paul Birdsong, the motorcyclist refused to go around the group blocking an intersection in Lansing last week, The Associated Press reports. The man who pointed the rifle can be heard in a video of incident telling the motorcyclist, “if you’re going to run us over, I’m going to protect my crowd.”

The man serving as security pointed the gun after the man on the motorcycle revved his engine, Birdsong said.

The man was protecting the group, according to his attorney, Lucas Dillon. Protection is needed because passersby have been threatening protesters, saying things like “you’re all going to die,” Dillon said.

The Lansing protest was related to unrest that spread throughout the country following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. A white police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for several minutes, even after the handcuffed Black man stopped moving and pleading for air.

Some people protesting police violence against Black people since Floyd’s death have encountered armed bystanders along demonstration routes, the report said.

The name of the man with the rifle has not been released, and the motorcyclist has not been identified, the report said.

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