Tuscaloosa County Commissioner Involved in Scrap With City School Resource Officer

A county official was held on the ground, handcuffed, and threatened with a Taser during a struggle with a Tuscaloosa Police school resource officer on Tuesday morning.

Footage uploaded to social media shows Tuscaloosa County Commissioner Reginald Murray wrestling against a TPD SRO who was trying to cuff his hands behind his back in the lobby of a local elementary school.

Murray is one of four commissioners elected to represent constituents in Tuscaloosa County who live in unincorporated areas outside of Tuscaloosa and Northport, and the commission is chaired by Probate Judge Rob Robertson.

The video does not show how the altercation begins, but Murray was reportedly causing a disturbance when he arrived at the school too late to be allowed into a student choir performance.

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In the video, Murray is being held on the ground by the TPD officer, who threatens to Tase him. He is shown saying Murray will not dictate what goes on inside a school and said the policies he was enforcing are to keep children safe.

Murray asks the person filming to send the video to TPD Chief Brent Blankley, Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox, and Marvin Lucas, a member of the city school board of education.

After a few minutes, the school resource officer was able to lock Murray's hands behind his back by linking two pairs of handcuffs together. Murray then refused to stand off the floor and said he would remain lying down until the cuffs were removed. The six-and-a-half-minute video uploaded Tuesday ended while Murray was still on the ground.

The video, embedded below, contains language some viewers will find offensive.

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A spokesperson for the Tuscaloosa City Schools referred questions about the incident to the police department, and the county commission was not prepared to comment at the time of this report's publication.

UPDATE: TPD has commented on the video and said Murray actively resisted their officer, who followed standard procedures and did not charge the county commissioner with a crime.

"We are aware of the public’s interest regarding an incident that occurred during a school awards program at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School Tuesday. Per school policy, all external doors of the school are locked once programs begin. Several people were able to enter the lobby when another person exited," TPD said in a statement. "One of those individuals then began knocking on the locked door to the auditorium where the program was taking place. A TPD officer inside the auditorium cracked the door and informed him that he could not enter. The man continued to knock on the glass window of the auditorium door. The officer then stepped out into the lobby to remove him from the school property."

"The individual was not compliant, and actively resisted the officer. During the course of the incident, the officer followed standard de-escalation protocols, which included multiple verbal warnings and the display of a Taser," TPD said. "The Taser was not deployed. The officer followed standard procedures to ensure the safety and order of the school environment. No arrest was made. Our priority is and always will be the safety and security of our students and staff."

For more updates on this story, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.