Demonstrators rally at Baton Rouge police HQ

The vast majority of those arrested, including the reporters, faced a charge of obstructing a highway.

Protests also took place Saturday in Nashville, where protesters briefly blocked a road, and in Indianapolis.

The situation was further inflamed when 25-year-old Micah Johnson, a black U.S. army veteran, opened fire on Dallas police officers with a high-powered rifle, killing five before being killed by police.

Among those arrested was DeRay Mckesson, a leading figure in the Black Lives Matter movement that blossomed in the wake of the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Police arrest DeRay Mckesson.

St. Paul, Minn., police arrested more than 100 demonstrators who were blocking I-94, the major expressway through the Twin Cities.

McKesson had traveled to Louisiana Saturday morning to join the protestors.

But officers came out again after the demonstration moved to a different area of the street.

Mckesson told the Washington Post, via text message, that he and about three dozen activists were brought into custody with their wrists tied.

The Advocate says Mckesson was filming live video of the protest and walking alongside Airline Highway when he was arrested.

“Police have been provocateurs all night”, he says in the video.

“A Baton Rouge Police Officer had several of his teeth knocked out as a projectile was thrown from the protest”, the police department said in a statement. That’s an hour for each of the black people they say have been killed by police across the country this year.

Before his arrest, McKesson tweeted: “If anything happens tonight, it was caused by the police. The protesters have not”.

Angry protesters in Philadelphia marched to two police precincts in the northern part of the city, facing off with police officers who kept calm as demonstrators shouted slogans and sometimes taunted them. “Don’t fight me! Don’t fight me!” “What?!” McKesson exclaims. “I’m under arrest y’all”. 42 percent of those taken into custody – either were homeless or listed addresses outside the city, according to information released by the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office. Bowers said she called him from the jail early Sunday.

Officials said both officers had on body cameras, but they fell off during the struggle and do not show the shooting.

He said he believes police are “antagonizing” protesters.

Police said Johnson’s military training apparently benefited him during the shooting, as he effectively triangulated police and shot at them with his high-caliber rifle.

Nearly 150 people have been arrested since Friday afternoon as more protests and rallies are planned for the fifth day of demonstrations following the death of Alton Sterling.

A few seconds later, as other protesters chant, “No racist police”.

Protesters waved homemade signs while drivers honked their support and some stopped by with bottles of water.

The smoke was used just after midnight Saturday when about 200 protesters were in the roadway as police in riot gear slowly moved in. “Without the uniform and badge, you are just like us”, one protester told a black officer.