The Tuscaloosa Police Department has launched an internal investigation after videos emerged of a team of officers using a Taser and baton during an arrest early Saturday morning.
The officers were responding to a loud music complaint at an apartment near the University of Alabama campus. Multiple videos of the incident show an officer speaking to the apartment’s occupants, who refused to exit the apartment and questioned whether the officer was within his rights to search the residence.
Over a dozen officers quickly responded to the scene. Two men and a woman, all University of Alabama students, were forcibly dragged from the apartment. One young man can be seen getting hit with a Taser and then repeatedly beaten with an officer’s nightstick. The three students were arrested, though it's unclear on what charges.
Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steve Anderson says he received the videos Saturday night and has turned them over to the department’s internal affairs investigators. They began an investigation yesterday.
Leonard Fournette’s hopes for the Heisman Trophy may have dimmed a bit following Alabama’s 30 to 16 drubbing of LSU. APR’s Pat Duggins wraps up the game from Bryant-Denny Stadium.
The Crimson Tide defense held LSU’s Leonard Fournette to just 30 yards on 19 carries. That total is 124 yards less than Fournette’s previous low point this season.
Alabama linebacker Reggie Ragland says everyone on the Tide defense did his job against the LSU standout…
“Geno made some great tackles on him. Marlon, the skinny corner we got, came up and hit him a couple of times. And, guys ran up to the ball and hit him. And we did a great job.”
Ragland is referring to Tide cornerback Marlon Humphrey and safety Geno Matias-Smith. Alabama kicker Adam Griffith’s field goal just before halftime tied the record for the longest ever for the Tide.
A group of documentary filmmakers and environmental activists are touring Alabama talking about the dangers of coal ash.
Four short films focused on coal ash waste will be screened at the events, covering public health concerns and potential policy and community responses.
Rhiannon Fionn is an investigative journalist and filmmaker originally from Wetumpka. An excerpt from her upcoming documentary Coal Ash Chronicles is one of the four films being screened. She says people will hear stories from across the country and close to home.
“You’re going to see people from all over the country, very literally, and you’re going to see people from Uniontown, Alabama. That’s where the coal ash from the Tennessee Valley Authority was shipped, and it’s literally right across the street from people’s front yards.”
The films will be screened in Montgomery tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Dalraida United Methodist Church, and in Fairhope Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Fairhope Brewing Company.