Former OU student Wesley Lowery, former editor-in-chief and current reporter for The Washington Post, was covering the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, when he was detained by police.
Washington Post reporter and former Ohio University student Wesley Lowery was detained by police Wednesday in Ferguson, Missouri, where he was covering the protests following the police shooting of a local unarmed teenager.
Lowery has since been released by the authorities without charges, according to his Twitter feed and interviews with national media outlets.
The D.C.-based reporter was formerly editor-in-chief at The Post in Athens for the 2011-12 Ohio University academic year.
On Thursday, the faculty at OU's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism voted to condemn the Ferguson police actions.
In a statement to The Post, Lowery said he wanted the events involving himself and Huffington Post reporter Ryan Reilly, who was also taken into custody and released in a similar fashion as Lowery, to "shed light on the state of things here."
The faculty at OU also applauded Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson for quickly releasing the arrested journalists.
Lowery's coverage has appeared on the front page of The Washington Post this week.
Last Saturday, as Brown walked down a street with a friend, the 18-year-old man was fatally shot by a police officer in Ferguson, a city in St. Louis’s northern suburbs, according to Lowery's coverage.
An unidentified police officer had a confrontation with Brown and a friend as they were walking, according to The Washington Post, which noted that most of what happened that night remains unclear.
County police and the FBI have announced separate investigations. Still, doubts have lingered in the community about whether the shooting was justified, leading to days of rallies and unrest, including angry confrontations between protesters and police, who have used tear gas on citizens.
The National Association of Black Journalists, of which Lowery is a member and previously served on the board of directors, and the Society of Professional Journalists also condemned the detentions.
