
A protester implicated in the Super Bowl LIX halftime show disruption has been apprehended nearly five months after the incident. Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, 41, from New Orleans, surrendered to law enforcement on Thursday after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He faces charges related to resisting an officer and disturbing the peace during the assembly.
In an unrelated case, Nantambu was shot in an incident on May 17, when former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown allegedly discharged his firearm during a celebrity boxing event in Miami, sustaining a grazing wound to his neck.
Nantambu was part of the 400-member on-field cast during Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance at the Superdome. During the show, he famously waved a flag representing Sudan and Palestine while running across the field, an act that was quickly noted as unauthorized. Security ultimately intervened to remove him from the performance.
New Orleans police initially claimed that Nantambu would not be charged for this act. However, following a more extensive investigation by Troop NOLA, they identified him as the performer and clarified that while he was allowed on the field, he did not have permission to protest in this manner.
“The preliminary investigation revealed that during the halftime performance, a performer deviated from his assigned role, retrieved a Sudanese flag bearing the message ‘Sudan and Free Gaza,’ and disrupted the halftime show by running across the field with the flag. Security and law enforcement personnel on site quickly recognized the unauthorized action and apprehended the performer after he refused to comply with their commands to stop.”
Security for this Super Bowl was particularly stringent, coinciding with the presence of President Donald Trump at the event, which followed a tragic terrorist attack in New Orleans that left 15 people dead shortly before.