(CNN) – CNN has obtained video of the chaotic scene outside a high school gymnasium in Huntsville, Alabama, where more than 100 people were charged with interfering with law enforcement on February 25, 2015, a protest over the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teenager.
About 25 people, mostly students, were charged with misdemeanors and had to spend the night in jail.
The video shows a crowd gathering after 6 p.m. at an empty school gymnasium.
At some point a black SUV with a bedspread on top drives past the crowd, startling someone. The driver pulls over, apparently to show people the bedspread, and the group steps back, fearing police. A boy with red shorts jumps, a short-sleeved shirt is pulled over his face, and he throws himself to the ground, the video shows.
Then several people rush to the boy. The boy lies on the ground as a few others assault him. It appears to be some sort of punching and kicking, according to the video. Several people then kick him in the chest and stomach, the video shows.
None of the charged students in the video told CNN they suffered injuries during the incident.
The white passenger in the SUV, Jake Derwin, 22, told CNN at the time that “everyone’s a victim here.” He said he and his friends were picked up by police because they thought the SUV was speeding, not because they were at a protest, he said.
Nine people charged with criminal trespass
Nine people were charged with criminal trespass. They were charged under a law that made trespass against the law for school-related property, according to Tuscaloosa County District Attorney Brian Jones.
One charge of criminal trespass was dismissed and the others were cleared by court orders, according to a memo Jones filed in court.
The group of demonstrators wanted to use the school as a meeting place to plan a future protest, Jones wrote in his memo.
“The protesters were not attempting to ‘get publicity,’ but rather were planning on holding future discussions and demonstrations about what happened the night of February 25, 2015,” Jones wrote.
According to CNN affiliate WHNT, on Friday a judge dismissed the trespassing charges against Derwin, who was accused of trespassing on school property and of being armed in the crowd. The judge also granted a restraining order to prevent Derwin from having any interaction with students, teachers or employees at Middleton High School.
Jones’ memo did not specify what kind of “protests” the students were planning, according to WHNT.
Jones stated that a police report identified the 18-year-old whom the boy was banging on. He refused to be interviewed by authorities and offered no explanation as to why he removed the boy from the scene, Jones wrote.
In December, attorneys who said they worked with the family of William Dawson, the man who was shot and killed by officers in February 2015, filed a motion in Alabama asking for all charges against people charged during that protest to be dropped.
A judge rejected the motion, and after two more people were charged, the attorneys refiled it.
Legal experts: Activists should be aware of the law
Attorney Dreyer Watkins, who represents Dawson’s family, told CNN that he helped to file the motion on behalf of 11 other people who were charged with trespassing after the protest and has filed a separate petition asking a federal judge to hold a hearing on the civil rights of the people.
“Hopefully, in the future, this will not be the case again where people are charged without a hearing and you won’t see similar retaliatory legal actions taken against protesters,” Watkins said.
According to Watkins, organizers in Birmingham and other cities were planning another demonstration Saturday morning.
“Everyone needs to know there are laws,” said Dr. Eutisha Shaw, who attended the protest in 2015, at a news conference announcing the federal lawsuit on Friday.
“People need to know what’s allowed and what’s not allowed,” she said.
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