The Birmingham Police Department released body camera footage of the arrest of Minor High School’s band director. The video shows Johnny Mims being tased and arrested after he refused to end his band’s performance following a high school football game in Birmingham, Alabama. Police say Mims disregarded requests to stop the performance. Mims was criminally charged.
Body camera footage released by police shows Mims continuing to conduct the approximately 145-member band through the end of a song. Then a physical altercation with officers ensued before he was shocked three times.
“The things that happened at that game should have never happened,” Mims told reporters Wednesday. “The students should have never seen me Tased.
Mims was charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and harassment, police. According to police, he “pushed” an officer during the altercation and had to be shocked to be subdued.
He denied pushing, hitting or attempting to strike an officer and said the force he was met with was “excessive.” “My client never struck or even remotely attempted to strike an officer,” Juandalynn Givan, a state representative and Mims’.
Givan said she and the Alabama Education Association, which represents teachers and other public school employees, were pursuing legal avenues to achieve accountability for the actions of police. They are also pushing for Mims to go back to work after he was placed on administrative leave while the school district reviews the incident.
Footage released by police and additional footage provided to USA TODAY by Givan shows officers approached Mims as he directed the still playing band in a set of bleachers. Loud music drowned out much of the conversation, but an officer can be heard telling Mims to stop the band from playing.
“Get out of my face,” Mims told an officer. Mims told the officer they were wrapping up their last song. Mims continued to conduct the students while several officers stood in front of him and told him the stadium needed to be cleared. At one point, an officer told Mims he would go to jail.
Mims was then pulled from the conductor’s stand, Givan. Much of the physical confrontation between Mims and police was obstructed from the camera’s view. Police said Mims refused to put his hands behind his back and pushed an officer.
Givan said none of the footage she has seen shows Mims striking out at an officer. As Mims was shocked with the stun gun three times, many of the onlookers, which included students, were screaming, the video showed.
It’s not clear why officers were instructing Mims to wrap up the band and clear out of the stadium. Mims told reporters he and the opposing school’s band director had agreed beforehand to play a fifth quarter after the game. He said once the lights went off, it was also hard for him to direct the band and officers standing between him and the students “interfered” with his ability to follow their orders.
Givan and members of the Alabama Education Association said Wednesday the arrest and use of a Taser on Mims has “traumatized” students and impacted the community.
“This was unacceptable. It’s an embarrassment to the state, it’s an embarrassment to the city,” Givan said.
She said Mims sustained injuries and has seen a doctor. He is experiencing numbness and tingling as a result of being shocked, she said. “He’s emotionally distraught over this,” Givan said.
In extended body camera footage provided by Givan, an officer leading Mims away in handcuffs can be heard telling him that his actions would make students less trusting of police in the future while Mims insists it was the police that escalated the situation. Givan said she is pushing for the officers to be put on administrative leave.
