Woman in Iconic Baton Rouge Photo: 'I Am a Vessel'

Ieshia Evans is a nurse, mother from New York
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 12, 2016 6:45 AM CDT
Woman in Iconic Baton Rouge Photo: 'I Am a Vessel'
This is a different angle of the incident as seen in a photo by the AP's Max Becherer. The photo going viral was shot by Jonathan Bachman of Reuters.   (AP Photo/Max Becherer)

One writer ranked it as iconic as the photograph of a man "staring down a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square": The photo shot Saturday by Jonathan Bachman of Reuters showing riot gear-clad police officers in Baton Rouge arresting a woman in a flowing dress has been shared across the world. Now, a name to go with the image: Friends and arrest records have confirmed the woman is Ieshia Evans, who the New York Daily News reports is a 35-year-old mother and nurse (other reports say she's 28). Evans took to Facebook with the following message, "I just need you people to know. I appreciate the well wishes and love, but this is the work of God. I am a vessel! Glory to the most high! I'm glad I'm alive and safe. And that there were no casualties that I have witnessed first hand."

She witnessed it firsthand, a friend tells the Daily Mail, after traveling from New York to Baton Rouge to participate in what her friend says was Evans' first protest. She "wanted a better future for her 5-year-old son," the friend explains. On Facebook, however, Evans asks her friends to keep quiet: "To all of my friends and acquaintances please don't do any interviews about me. If they want my story, I am here. I would like the opportunity to represent myself! Thank you. Peace, love, blk power! #‎blacklivesmatter." (Read more Black Lives Matter stories.)

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