He was the star of an FBI sting operation. Now out of prison, a changed Olajuwon Davis looks back on the “wicked” plot that took him down BY DAN N Y WICENTOW SKI
F
rom the roof of his downtown apartment building, Olajuwon Davis is surrounded by his past. In front of him curves the Gateway Arch, which was once widely reported to be among his potential bombing targets before his arrest in an FBI sting operation in 2014. To his right looms the dome of the federal courthouse where, several months later, he pleaded guilty to weapons and explosives charges. More than six years have passed since that hearing, and Davis is out of prison. The former member of the New Black Panther Party and an FBI-cited example of “Black Identity Extremism” has returned to St. Louis — but not as he was before, as a militant, activist or would-be rebel trying to live outside the legal system. Today, Davis says he only wants to be himself. He’d like to return to what was once a promising acting career, to leave his past behind and to again feel the lights of a camera, the eyes of an audience following him onstage. But Davis can’t escape the events that changed him. In his first postprison interview, he describes the impact of his unwitting role as a leading man in an FBI sting operation as “a mind-shaking experience.” Davis was arrested on November 21, 2014 — three days before the announcement of a grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting of Michael Brown. The U.S. Attorney’s Office summarized the allegations against Davis in a press release: “Planning and conspiring to ignite explosive devices during the Ferguson protests.” The accusations shocked those who
had only known him as a gifted activist and rising young actor. Still, in some ways, he now sees his imprisonment as a blessing. “It gave me an opportunity to shed a lot of the beliefs that I had taken on,” he says. “I was young and on fire — looking for something to empower me, be a part of, identify with. All of that has changed greatly for me. It took for me to be isolated, and for me to go through what I went through, in order to realize that.” Davis’ unusual path, from the Ferguson protests to federal prison, was extensively detailed in a Riverfront Times cover story in August 2019. Based on prison interviews with Davis, the story chronicled how he arrived at the growing protest against the police shooting of Michael Brown on August 9, 2014 — and how the sight of the bloodstained pavement shook him to the core, and made him wonder, “Am I next?” Days later, on August 14, police forces temporarily pulled back from the main area of the demonstrations near a burned QuikTrip in Ferguson. In response, a stretch of West Florissant Avenue became a rolling, protester-controlled parade of blasting music, honking car horns and dancing Continued on pg 19
Olajuwon Davis has a new place to live and a new life to lead. | ERIN MCAFEE 16
RIVERFRONT TIMES
AUGUST 4-10, 2021
riverfronttimes.com
ALL EYES ON HIM
