An Alabama band director who was shocked with a stun gun by police after he refused to stop his band’s performance said he is “stunned and baffled” by what happened.
Johnny Mims, the band director for Minor High School, said on NBC News NOW that he and the director for Jackson-Olin High School had agreed to do a “5th Quarter” performance, where both bands continued playing while the crowds left the stadium in Birmingham after Thursday night’s football game.
Mims said bands typically do this.
He said when police approached him he told them that the song they were playing would be their last performance.
“Before I knew it, I did see the officer tase me. I went down and after that, I was tased an additional two more times by the same officer and a different officer,” he said. “I can’t even remember after that point because I was so stunned and so baffled. All I remember is hearing all of my students screaming and all of the parents crying.”
Officers were clearing out the stadium following the game and saw both school bands still performing, the Birmingham Police Department said in a news release. Police said the officers asked both directors to stop playing so people would start to leave. The director for Jackson-Olin stopped, but the director for Minor continued to play, according to the release.
The police department released body camera video on Monday that they say began 18 minutes after the game ended. It showed an officer approaching people with Minor’s band and telling them that it was “time to go.”
“Y’all gotta go and come down,” the officer is heard saying.
The officer then started speaking with the director, telling him that he was “being disrespectful.”
“Get out of my face. Get out of my face. Get out my face,” Mims repeats with his hands in the air.
A second officer approached and told the director to stop, the video showed. A sergeant was also seen in the video telling the director to “cut it.”
The situation quickly escalated and an officer is heard…
Read the full article here
