Rapper Nur-D hires Rodney King’s lawyer to represent him

After photos and video of federal agents violently detaining him in Minneapolis went viral, Twin Cities rapper Matt “Nur-D” Allen has retained the law firm that represented the victim in one of the country’s most high-profile police abuse cases.

Allen and his wife, Sarah Allen, have hired Rodney King’s attorney, John Burris, and his Los Angeles-based firm Burris, Nisenbaum, Curry & Lacy, to represent them in a possible lawsuit against federal agencies they say violated their civil liberties. Burris was the lead attorney in the case that won King a civil jury verdict of $3.8 million after he was videotaped being beaten by four Los Angeles police officers in 1991.

No legal filings have been submitted yet, but in a statement sent to the Minnesota Star Tribune, the law firm said it will “pursue legal action … for the violation of their civil liberties” against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Border Patrol and other federal agencies.

In the hours and mayhem immediately following Alex Pretti’s shooting by federal agents on Jan. 24, Allen was filmed being pinned down by several federal agents and then sprayed in the face with pepper spray as he was walking away from them near the shooting scene. He was then loaded into the back of a pickup truck and taken away screaming in pain and yelling, “You’re gonna have to kill me!”

The law firm described the incident this way in a statement sent on behalf of the Allens:

“While exercising their Constitutional First Amendment rights, Federal Agents began to deploy flash bangs and chemical gas indiscriminately into the crowd without warning. As seen on video and by multiple witnesses, Mr. Allen was calmly walking away from the agents with both hands in the air, after getting separated from Sarah, when he was hit in the back with unknown projectiles, and violently tackled to the ground from behind by multiple masked agents who did not announce themselves.

“Mr. Allen was pressed into the street, kneeled on by multiple agents at a time, verbally assaulted with excessive vulgarity, and sprayed in the face with an unknown chemical weapon, all while hearing the desperate cries of his wife, Sarah, as she pleaded for his life with agents at the scene.”

Allen, a popular local entertainer and Twin Cities native who has performed at Orchestra Hall and First Avenue, was treated at HCMCand returned home that night. He has declined interview requests since the incident, but he posted a video Jan. 29 on social media stating he’s at home and doing OK. He urged his supporters to now focus their attention on “the families of those who can’t say that.”