ANN ARBOR, MI - A run-in with University of Michigan police has left protesters of Ann Arbor's deer cull worried about how a state statute is being applied locally.

It comes just days after the City Council voted 6-5 against directing the city attorney to investigate and possibly cite or seek an injunction on the cull protesters, who’ve demonstrated at shoot sites since the fourth-annual cull kicked off last week.

Protesters demonstrated for several hours on the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 9, near where a city-hired sharpshooter had set up on Hubbard Road near Green Road, said 69-year-old Lorraine Shapiro, a member of the non-profit Ann Arbor Non-Lethal Deer Management.

They were standing on the sidewalk, showing signs to passing vehicles and calling out "stop the shoot" and "save the deer" periodically, she said.

"And occasionally we were making a little more noise and occasionally we weren’t making any noise at all," she said.

Police arrived about 8 p.m. after receiving four complaints about the group from those involved in the cull, University of Michigan Deputy Chief of Police Melissa Overton said.

They'd been screaming in the woods, on purpose, when a light had been turned on to signify a cull operator at work, she said.

Shapiro and Phil Carroll, 85 and a leader of anti-cull group FAAWN, Friends of Ann Arbor Wildlife in Nature, were the only two protesters left by the time police approached them.

One officer said that, under a Michigan statute, they could face 93 days in jail for their actions, Shapiro said.

"In fact, he said to me, 'If I see you again, you will be cited,'" said Shapiro.

Under Michigan law, it's a misdemeanor to impede "the lawful taking of animals" by disturbing the animals or blocking, impeding or harassing someone who is engaged in the taking.

Beyond the 93 days in jail, violators could be fined between $500 and $1,000 on the first offense. For the second offense, they could be jailed for up to a year and fined between $1,000 and $2,500.

The statute came under sharp focus in the recent proposal by Ann Arbor City Council Member Jane Lumm, who believes protesters are violating the law by interfering with the cull.

But protesters don’t believe they’re violating this law. In fact, Shapiro and Carroll said it was their First Amendment rights that were violated that night.

Protesters also are concerned with what changed in enforcement, said Lisa Abrams of FAAWN.

They’ve protested the same way for four years, without such interactions with police, she said.

Overton said it's due to a new understanding of what can enforced.

Though Overton agreed officers had let the protesters demonstrate similarly just a few nights prior, she said a renewed look at the law, consultation with prosecutors, and review of the complaints and stakeholders led them to act differently Wednesday.

The protesters can stay if they protest peacefully, she said.

“Running up and yelling louder, that’s not peaceful, that’s disruption," she said.

It's her understanding that the protesters have been complying when approached by police and chose to leave on their own that night. Voluntary compliance is the goal, she said, noting safety is their priority.

Abrams said the group hadn't seen the red light described by Overton before, and didn't know what it meant. She also said the group remained on the sidewalk, refuting claims by Ann Arbor resident and supporter of the cull Kurt Sonen of Washtenaw Citizens for Ecological Balance.

Sonen said some protesters stepped off the sidewalk into the wood to yell at the shooter.

"I'm not sure if it was just her voice or she had a noisemaker, but she made some outrageously loud noises," he said of one.

Abrams refuted the claim that the demonstrations were impeding the cull efforts.

"If what we did really impacted their legal taking of an animal, how have they managed to kill 274 deer?" she said "How did they manage to shoot while were protesting?"

The incident is just the latest in the city's deer cull saga.

A former city council member lodged a complaint with Ann Arbor police about FAAWN after a protest at his home during a cull operation there last week.

The city aims to kill up to 150 deer during the cull this month to curtail what city officials and some residents believe is an overpopulation of deer.