4 arrested after protesters rappel from BofA Stadium during Panthers game

Police charged four people after protesters rappelled from a Bank of America Stadium overhang during Monday night’s Carolina Panthers football game and dropped a banner.

Activists protesting Bank of America’s financing of a liquefied natural gas facility in Maryland suspended themselves from the upper deck of the stadium. They dropped a banner reading “BoA: Dump Dominion” and a link to the protest’s website. BoA is an abbreviation for Bank of America, the Charlotte-based bank that owns the naming rights to the Panthers’ stadium.

The protesters – a man and a woman wearing full rappelling gear – climbed down during the third quarter in front of the press box.

Firefighters and police officers converged on the scene, and stadium officials cleared out the section just below as a precaution. No injuries were reported.

“They’re obviously causing a significant disturbance,” one television commentator said as cameras panned to the emptied section and the police activity. “I think they’re going to be doing their hanging out somewhere else pretty soon.”

The protesters were arrested just after 11 p.m.

Police said in a statement that the protesters had refused their commands to come down. The Charlotte Fire Department was then called in to help, police said.

Police haven’t released the names of those arrested.

We Are Cove Point, an organization involved in the protest, identified them as David Baghdadi, Erica Madrid, John Nicholson and Angela Vogel, according to Observer news partner WBTV.

“Bank of America is allowing companies like Dominion (Resources) to operate without checks and balances,” Nicholson said in a press release from We Are Cove Point. “They are giving money directly to Dominion with full knowledge of the health and safety risks of building an LNG export facility, and they need to be accountable to that.”