ST. LOUIS (AP) - The Rev. Larry Rice and three other people were arrested as police took down a new homeless camp in St. Louis.
Rice, a longtime advocate for the homeless, was arrested Wednesday evening after refusing to leave the camp that he opened earlier in the day.
Hours before the arrests, St. Louis officials ordered people who had set up tents at the site to leave. Some left and four others were taken to an emergency shelter. But Rice and three others stayed and were arrested.
Neighbors had objected to the new homeless camp on the two-acre site near the Missouri Botanical Garden and city officials had vowed to shut it down.
Rice leased the site after the city cleared out three other homeless camps, citing health and safety code violations.