A high school band director in Alabama was tased and arrested for letting his students perform after a football game, CBS News reports.
Johnny Mims, band director at Minor High School in Adamsville, was leading a performance in the bleachers after a football game against Jackson-Olin High School last week before the incident occurred. Both high school bands partook in the “fifth quarter” performance, which is an HBCU marching band tradition where students perform after the game ends, Juandalynn Givan, Mims’ attorney, said.
Birmingham police said officers ordered the band directors of both high schools to stop the performances so they could clear out the stadium. The Jackson-Olin director complied while Mims continued to let his students play, according to police.
That’s when the “horrifying situation” of Mims’ tasing and arrest began to unfold.
“All I remember is hearing all of my students screaming, all of the parents crying,” Mims said in a statement following his arrest. “It was a horrifying situation. I just hate to even have to keep talking about it.”
Body camera footage on Tuesday (September 19) shows an officer approaching Mims as he is conducting the band.
“Get out of my face,” Mims repeatedly told the officer.
“I’ve got my troops coming,” the officer responded. After instructing Mims to stop the performance, the officer told the band director “You will go to jail.”
At one point in the footage, an altercation ensued between Mims and multiple officers. Mims was shocked with a taser while being ordered to put his hands behind his back. He was tased a second time after the first attempt was “ineffective,” according to Birmingham police.
The band director was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, physical harassment, and resisting arrest. Mims’ attorney said he intends to take legal action against the Birmingham Police Department.
Watch body camera footage of the incident here.
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