2 arrested at Black Lives Matter - Birmingham protest on Lakeshore Parkway

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) - One week after gathering at two busy shopping centers, the group "Black Lives Matter-Birmingham" held another protest today. The protest started around 4:00 at the Walmart off of Lakeshore Parkway. The group announced the location just a few hours before the event.

Several dozen protesters gathered in the parking lot with signs and started chanting, "No justice, no peace."

"I'm here to say that we need to do what's right," said Lawton Higgs, Sr. "We need to treat all people with respect."

The crowd walked into the Walmart store and out into the parking lot through the aisles several times.

"I could hardly keep up with these guys, they're so fast and they're moving around but I'm here," Higgs laughed. "I'm here!"

Several times, many of the protesters marched through the Lakeshore Parkway intersection and at one point, held up traffic.

We asked one of the organizers if he thought this was a successful protest.

"Everything we do, disrupting this, and bringing attention to what we're doing is successful. And that's all I have to say," he said.

It was a relatively peaceful protest until the very end when the crowd started to disperse. Homewood Police arrested two people around 5:15 p.m. for criminal trespassing. An attorney for the group says he expects several charges to be filed, including: criminal trespassing, possession of marijuana, and disorderly conduct.

David Gespass, an attorney representing the group, confirmed that one of those arrested could also face a possession of marijuana charge.

Homewood Police identified the two people arrested as 30-year-old Mercutio Terrell Southhall and 31-year-old Randall Corey Anderson. Southhall, of Fairfield, faces criminal trespass, resisting arrest and possession of marijuana charges. Anderson. of Riverdale, GA., faces criminal trespassing charges.

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