TOPEKA (KSNT) – Law enforcement officers took the leader of a satanic organization away Friday morning in handcuffs as protesters gathered at the Kansas Statehouse to voice their disagreements with a ‘Black Mass’ ceremony.

Officers tackled Michael Stewart, president of the Satanic Grotto, to the floor inside the statehouse rotunda on Friday, March 28 as he attempted to hold a Black Mass ceremony. He entered the building to hold the event after being warned by Kansas Governor Laura Kelly to move the ceremony to the outer grounds. An officer told Stewart as he entered the Kansas Statehouse that he was welcome to enter the building but could not hold an event or cause a disruption or he would be arrested.

Stewart had just started the Black Mass ceremony inside the Kansas Statehouse in the rotunda area when a counter-protester entered into a physical altercation with him. Officers could be seen taking Stewart to the floor as he shouted that he was not resisting. He was then lead away from the area shouting, “Hail Satan. I dedicate this building to Satan.”

“The point of the Black Mass was to… just to show our space in the public circle,” Stewart said on the south side of the Kansas Statehouse prior to the incident within the building. “To express our feelings and our hurt that’s come from past traumas and really to give voice to our community in the public square here.”

Dozens of Catholics and Christians gathered at the Kansas Statehouse to protest the planned Black Mass. Both Kansas lawmakers and the Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City condemned the Black Mass in the days leading up to Friday allegedly due to the anti-Catholic nature of the ceremony.

“We came here just for this because we feel its important for us to stand up and show that God is real, Jesus is alive, the powers of evil need to be protested against and we’re here just to glorify God,” said Kent Van Amburg, a Catholic from St. Andrew the Apostle Catholic Church in Gladstone, Missouri.

Protesters and Satanists spent the morning of March 28 rallying outside the Kansas Statehouse on its south side. A large number of officers with the Kansas Highway Patrol and Capitol Police were present at the event.

27 News is reaching out to law enforcement to determine what, if any, charges are being brought against Stewart in the aftermath of this incident. More information will be added here as it becomes available.

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