Louisiana Police Officer Sues Black Lives Matter Leaders Over Baton Rouge Shooting
The officers seeks at least $75,000 in damages
This article originally appeared on TIME
A Louisiana police officer who was wounded in a Baton Rouge shooting last year that left three officers dead sued Black Lives Matter leaders on Friday, claiming they incited violence that prompted the attack.
Filed in a U.S. district court in Louisiana, the lawsuit names DeRay McKesson and four other leaders from Black Lives Matter as defendants and seeks at least $75,000 in damages, Reuters reports.
The attack on the police officers occurred last July, amid protests in Baton Rouge over the death of Alton Sterling, a black man who was killed by police.
Black Lives Matter leaders have denied their movement calls for violence against police officers, Reuters reports.
Gavin Long, the Black gunman who killed the Baton Rouge police officers and was later killed at the scene, was targeting police and had a history of making violent and incendiary posts online.
The unnamed officer who filed the lawsuit was one of three officers injured in the shooting. The lawsuit comes on the one-year anniversary of a sniper attack in Dallas, in which five police officers were killed during a demonstration against police shootings of Black men.