Katt Williams -- Suge Knight and I Did Nothing Wrong … We Were Protecting a Child!

Katt Williams says he and Suge Knight were falsely arrested because they were not trying to steal a camera ... they were trying to protect a 5-year-old child from an unethical photographer.

Katt talked to our photog hours after his release Wednesday in Malibu ... he's characteristically cryptic ... but it seems he's saying he and Suge saw the alleged victim shooting a 5-year-old who was alone in an alley and suggested the photog was doing something inappropriate.

According to Katt ... the female photog said she would erase the video but then booked it, so they gave chase. And, he says they never took the camera.