Christopher LeDay is a former Aerospace Ground Equipment (AEG) for the United States Air Force who currently works Dobbins Air Reserve Base. He was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where he attended Capitol Senior High School.

Arrest for Unpaid traffic Fines

On July 7, 2016, Chris Leday was arrested a day after uploading and publishing the video of the Alton Sterling

shooting.

The video was sent to him by the people who shot it, and after the story gained momentum from several news reports, he posted the video on his Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, where the video went viral and the story blew up. ^[1] At the time, the story – without the video – was being reported in the local news and was already generating controversy because the store owner was saying the shooting was unjustified and the coroner was saying he was shot several times in the front and back. And the cops were saying their body cams had fallen off, so there was no video of the shooting.

Christopher LeDay said the following about releasing the video:

“I wanted everybody to see this video.

I wanted it to go viral.

The police were already saying their body cams fell off and I wanted to show there was video of the shooting.”

So he posted the video on all three Social media platform Tuesday evening, where it began getting shared numerous times, including by Shaun King of the New York Daily News, who uploaded the video on his Facebook less than an hour after LeDay had posted it on his Facebook page.

The military officers that arrested Chris eventually told him he was wanted on a warrant for assault and battery and escorted him into a back room where he was handcuffed and forced to wait for Dunwoody police to come pick him up, the local police department who had this alleged warrant out for his arrest.

The arrest turns out to be about traffic tickets from years ago, as Chris relates:

“It was just over some traffic tickets from a couple of years ago.

They said my license was suspended.

At the time, I couldn’t afford it, then I was just being stubborn about it.

But I take Uber to work anyway.

Even one of the cops on the base said he sees me getting dropped off for work.

It was embarrassing.

This happening in 2016.”

The cop told him it was for his safety.

LeDay not having paid his traffic fines and all.

He ended up spending 26 hours in the Dekalb County Jail and was released only after paying the $1,231 fine for his unpaid traffic fines.

LeDay was worried that he would lose his job because his boss had seen him getting arrested but when he told him it was for unpaid traffic tickets, his boss just laughed it off, saying they don’t care about stuff like that.

But his boss did say they had been concerned that he had omitted an assault and battery arrest on his security clearance form, which would have been immediate grounds for dismissal.

Even though he believes somebody in law enforcement was trying to get him fired in retaliation for posting the video, he said he is not going to stop speaking out against police abuse.

“We need to diffuse what the cops are doing.

They want to say that not all cops are bad but they are not speaking out against the bad cops.

It just keeps getting worse and people are getting tired of it.

I just want some change to occur.”

On July 22nd, 2016, Christopher announced that attorney, Tiffany Simmons, will be representing him in his attempt to get his job back.

Since he has released the video and being arrested the next day at the site of his job, he has not been able to return the base to presume his work.

There is now a Go Fund Me active that supports Christopher's efforts of getting his job back, and more specifically to cover his lawyer fee.