NOPD makes arrest in slaying of Black Lives Matter activist

New Orleans police have arrested a Black man in the fatal shooting of a Black Lives Matter activist known for his leap through police tape to try to seize a Confederate battle flag during a demonstration last year in South Carolina.

A Crimestoppers tip helped them identify 26-year-old Roosevelt Iglus as a suspect in the death of 32-year-old Muhiyidin Elamin Moye, better known as Muhiyidin d’Baha, police said in a news release Wednesday.

Iglus, who was on probation after pleading guilty in 2016 to illegally carrying a weapon and possessing marijuana, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of second-degree murder. That carries an automatic life sentence if he is convicted on the charge.

Police don’t know a possible motive for the shooting, spokesman Aaron Looney told The Associated Press in an email Wednesday.

Moye was shot in the thigh early Feb. 6 in New Orleans. A police officer answering a call about gunfire found him on the ground, asking for help near the Tremé neighborhood and about eight blocks from the French Quarter.

He had taken a personal trip to the city, his niece Camille Weaver told The Post and Courier of Charleston.

His family told South Carolina news outlets Muhiyidin Elamin Moye was his legal name.

A GoFundMe page established by the family raised enough funds in just days to have the South Carolina native’s remains returned to his home state for burial.

Iglus’ bond was set at $505,000, according to an online court record which showed he also is accused of possessing amphetamines.

His case was assigned to the public defender’s office.

After the guilty plea April 29, 2016, Iglus was given a suspended five-year sentence and put on probation for five years on the marijuana charge and given a suspended six-month sentence and six months’ probation on the weapons charge, according to The Associated Press.

Less than two weeks later, prosecutors filed a new drug charge against him. He pleaded guilty July 8, 2016, and was sentenced to 1-1/2 years, according to online records.

This article originally published in the July 30, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.