Post date: Mar 17, 2012 1:47:2 PM
INVISIBLE CHILDREN - The director of a viral video that calls for the arrest of Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony has been hospitalized for exhaustion following an "unfortunate incident" that his group said stemmed from the emotional toll of recent weeks.
The director of a video gone viral that calls for the arrest of fugitive Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony has been hospitalized in California for exhaustion following an "unfortunate incident."
The statement follows reports in local media that Russell, 33, was detained by San Diego police on Thursday in the city's Pacific Beach neighborhood.
San Diego Police spokeswoman Lt. Andra Brown said she could not confirm that Russell was detained there on Thursday (March 15).
Brown said that a 33-year-old white male was detained and transported to a medical facility for evaluation and treatment at about 11:30 a.m. on Thursday morning after police received reports that he was acting "bizarrely."
"Several residents in the neighborhood were very concerned about a male that they described as a white male in his late 20s, that was acting strangely. There were various stages of undress that were described, he was wearing underwear, that he was naked, that kind of thing. That he was running into the roadway, he was interfering with traffic, screaming and that kind of thing," said Brown.
Brown said that the man was not arrested but taken to a medical facility after being detained.
"Jason Russell was unfortunately hospitalized yesterday suffering from exhaustion, dehydration, and malnutrition. He is now receiving medical care and is focused on getting better," Ben Keesey, CEO of Invisible Children, said in a statement.
"The past two weeks have taken a severe emotional toll on all of us, Jason especially, and that toll manifested itself in an unfortunate incident yesterday," he added, without giving details on the incident.
The 30-minute YouTube video called "Kony 2012," viewed by tens of millions of people, aims to wake up the world to atrocities committed by Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, including kidnapping children and forcing them to fight. Invisible Children, Russell's nonprofit group, tapped 12 influential policymakers and 20 celebrities with popular Twitter accounts, including Oprah Winfrey and Angelina Jolie, to spread the video. Since then, the company owned by powerful producer Harvey Weinstein has contacted Russell to buy the film.