The co-founder of Invisible Children has been taken to hospital in San Diego, California, following what the group called an “unfortunate incident” after he was reportedly found half-naked and screaming at traffic.
Jason Russell narrated the Kony 2012 campaign video which went viral on the internet last week.
Russell was taken to hospital on Thursday “suffering from exhaustion, dehydration and malnutrition,” Ben Keesey, Invisible Children’s CEO, 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,” Keesey said without providing details.
A San Diego police spokeswoman, asked about media reports that Russell had been detained, said only that a 33-year-old white man had been taken to a medical facility on Thursday morning.
“Officers responded to a radio call to check the welfare of an individual who was said to be running in the street, interfering with traffic, screaming; one person said that he was naked and masturbating,” police spokeswoman Lieutenant Andra Brown told the AFP news agency..
“Other people said that he was interfering with traffic, banging on the sidewalk that sort of thing. We have reports of being in various states of undress, and neighbours in the area were concerned about him.”
Jason Russell’s wife issued a statement Friday night saying, “Yes, he did some irrational things brought on by extreme exhaustion and dehydration.”
A statement by Danica Russell and other members of the family suggested that the criticism of the Invisible Children video about African militia leader Joseph Kony may have contributed to Russell’s bizarre behaviour.
“… Because of how personal the film is, many of the attacks against it were also very personal and Jason took them very hard,” said the statement. Among other things, critics said the video misstated the facts about the current level of violence in Uganda, Kony’s current whereabouts and the strength of his militia forces.
“Jason has dedicated his adult life to this cause, leading to the KONY 2012 video,” the family statement said. “We thought a few thousand people would see the film, but in less than a week, millions of people around the world saw it.”
In an apparent comment to the nonprofit organization’s many volunteers, the statement concludes: “On our end, the focus remains only on his health, and protecting our family. We’ll take care of Jason, you take care of the work. The message of the film remains the same: stop at nothing.
