A performer in Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl half-time show was ejected after unfurling a combination Sudanese-Palestinian flag with “Sudan” and “Gaza” written on it – but he is not going to face legal charges, police said.
The National Football League confirmed the person was part of the 400-member field cast who performed alongside Lamar at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans but said the man had no permission to display the flag.
A statement from the New Orleans police department said the performer in question was “detained” and “ejected from the stadium after the incident”, but “no arrest [was made] nor summons was issued”.
Police said they would not name the ejected person. Nonetheless, in a conversation with the Daily Mail, Zül-Qarnain Nantambu – who discusses politics as well as his life as a Muslim in the US on his Open Book Platform channel on YouTube – identified himself as the ejected performer.
Nantambu reportedly told the Daily Mail that he had been hired as a participant in Lamar’s show about two weeks before the Super Bowl. He said the Grammy winner had no idea about the demonstration Nantambu was planning – something meant to “show solidarity with the people” victimized by ongoing conflicts in those parts of the world.
“We have a life of luxury in comparison to what they’re going through,” said Nantambu, who lists himself as a musician, film-maker, fashion designer and freedom fighter, according to the Daily Mail.
A separate statement from an NFL spokesperson, Brian McCarthy, said the ejected performer would be “banned for life from all [league] stadiums and events”.
The cast member stood on a car used as a prop for Lamar’s performance and held up the flag. He then leapt off the vehicle and the stage when approached by a production crew member, as video circulated on social media shows.
He subsequently ran around the field while holding up the flag before men in suits who were providing security detained him. Louisiana state police troopers could then be seen escorting the performer out.
McCarthy’s statement said the “individual hid the item on his person and unveiled it late in the show”.
“No one involved with the production was aware of the individual’s intent,” McCarthy said.
Roc Nation, the entertainment company which produced the show, said that the act “was neither planned nor part of the production and was never in any rehearsal”.
Lamar completed his performance without interruption. On social media associated with Nantambu, the flag he was holding could be seen briefly on the television broadcast of Lamar’s show while the tennis superstar Serena Williams did what is known as a crip walk – a dance move out of her and the lyricist’s home town of Los Angeles.
State troopers at the Superdome on Sunday encountered at least one other person who was accused of doing something that they were not supposed to do.
Alec Nguyen, described as a 23-year-old resident of South Amboy, New Jersey, was spotted wearing a fake identification card by security personnel in the Superdome at about 9.25pm on Sunday, state police wrote in court documents that were obtained by the Guardian.
Troopers approached Nguyen after he allegedly refused to answer security workers’ questions about the false credential. He allegedly declined to answer troopers’ questions, too, prompting them to arrest Nguyen on counts of criminal trespassing and resisting arrest by refusing to identify himself.
According to court documents, troopers who searched Nguyen found “numerous items of audio and visual recording equipment on him”.
New Orleans magistrate court judge Jonathan Friedman set Nguyen’s bail Monday at $3,000.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
