CNN —
Birmingham Police Department spokesperson: “A band director was tased and arrested after he disregarded police requests to stop his band’s performance following a high school football game.”
According to police, the incident took place on Thursday at PD Jackson-Olin High School in Birmingham, following a victory by Minor High School. After the game, Birmingham police officers began to clear the stadium and discovered “both schools’ bands still performing,” according to spokesman Truman Fitzgerald in a statement.
According to the statement, officers spoke with the directors of both bands and requested that they cease playing music “so students and attendees would leave the stadium.”
When asked to stop, the home team band did, but Johnny Mims, Minor’s band director, “instructed his band to continue performing,” instead of stopping.
“We are ready to leave. The officers are then informed by Mims, “This is our last song.”
Mims gives the cop a thumbs up and says, “That’s cool,” in response to his threat that “you will go to jail.”
The band then ends their song and the stadium’s field lights are turned off. As Mims gets off the platform, he fights with the police, yelling at them to “get off of me” as they seem to be trying to handcuff him.
“He struck the policeman.” We hear one of the officers say, “He needs to go to jail.” “He swung at the policeman.”
As the struggle goes on, Mims can then be heard responding that he “did not swing on the officer.”
