‘Why Are You Choking Him?’: Georgia School Cop Brutally Arrests Black Teen After Adults Refuse to Check One Simple Thing, Video Shows
As he has done for years after school lets out, 18-year-old Lanier Johnson-Hunt walked onto the school bus in Georgia that would take him home to care for his 6-year-old brother who has autism. But the school bus driver ordered the Black teen off the bus, accusing him of being on the wrong bus. When Johnson-Hunt insisted he was on the right bus, the bus driver contacted administrators who made no attempt to determine if he belonged on the bus, calling school resources officers instead. Lanier Johnson-Hunt, right, was choked, tasered and arrested by a school resources cop who falsely accused him of being on the wrong school bus. (Photo: Attorneys Daniel Harris and Gerald Griggs, and 11 Alive News) Two Fulton County School resource cops walked onto the bus with one cop named Jimmy J. Durden choking and tasering the teen which was caught on video by a fellow student. Johnson-Hunt – who was left with burn marks on his neck – never made it on the bus because he was arrested on charges of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and obstruction. He was also suspended from Langston Hughes High School for 10 days. ‘Think We Have the Wrong Guy’: Innocent Black Florida Man Attacked by Cops and Mauled by K9 After ‘Matching the Description,’ Files Lawsuit On Tuesday, the teen was joined in a press conference with two high-profile lawyers denouncing the actions of the bus driver, the school administrators and especially the cop who has been accused by another parent of abusing her son as well. “Lanier was on the right school bus,” said Harry Daniels, one of the attorneys attending a press conference on Tuesday to discuss the incident. “It was a dereliction of duty from the adults who had a duty to, one, ensure that a student is on the correct bus, which he was,” Daniels contended. Daniels said the teen needed to be home because his 6-year-old little brother with autism would arrive from school around the same time and it was his responsibility to take care of him since their mother works. “It was imperative for him to get home … to ensure the safety of his little brother,” the attorney explained. Gerald Griggs, the second attorney speaking on his behalf, addressed the social media critics who watched the video and accused the teen of not complying with the cop’s demands. “He was merely trying to get home to take care of his little brother,” Griggs told reporters. “He was in the right place at the right time to do the right thing.” The attorneys did not specify whether they will be filing a lawsuit but it would be surprising if they don’t. Watch the video below. ‘Why Are You Choking Him?’ The incident took place after school on Thursday, Dec. 18, in Fairburn, which is a suburb of Atlanta. Johnson-Hunt stepped on the same bus he had been riding for years but the bus driver who started two months earlier determined he was on the wrong bus, ordering him to get off. The teen said that he and other students tried to correct the bus driver but she pulled up to administrators who ordered all the students off the bus before allowing them back on without checking their names. When Johnson-Hunt walked back onto the bus, they ordered him off the bus and he refused which was when they called the cops. “You’re going to get off or you’re going to make me take you off,” said the second cop, whose name has not been released, but Johnson-Hunt would not budge from his seat. “These kids need to go home, I’m not playing with you today,” the cops said referring to the other students, accusing Johnson-Hunt of preventing them from going home. “Well, I got to go home,” Johnson-Hunt responded. “But you don’t ride this bus,” the cop responded as Durban began pulling him off the seat while the teen resisted passively by not moving. Durden then grabs his neck with his hand and shoves him backwards while pulling out his taser. “Why are you choking him,” a student can be heard asking off-camera. The cop then presses the taser against the teen’s neck and fires, causing the teen to yell out in pain. “Let’s go, I’m going to hit your ass again,” Durden threatened. “Everybody get the f_ck back!” Durden orders the other students. The video then ends, but the abuse continued, Johnson-Hunt said at the press conference. “When I was off the bus, they put me in some handcuffs, and the officer who tased me had started slapping me while my hands was in the handcuffs,” the teen said. “He was slapping me, then he tried to tase me again while my hands was in the handcuffs.” “That's when the administrators came back outside and tried to break it up. But he was already in the midst of slapping me when they broke it up,” Johnson-Hunt detailed. “When they broke it up, he was still running towards me, he was still trying to attack me while my hands were in handcuffs.” ‘This Was an Out of Control Officer’ Paramedics arrived and told police he needed to be transported to the hospita, l which they agreed to do, but the officers took him to the police station instead to book him on criminal charges. He did not go to the hospital until the following day. “This was an out of control officer,” said Daniels. “Completely unhinged, out of control.” School administrators then concocted a false narrative to justify the abuse to his mother, she says. “They called me and told me Lanier was on the bus trying to fight the police officer, he was actually on the wrong bus, they couldn't get him off the bus, they said that he gave the wrong name,” said Sharrita Johnson-Hunt at the press conference. “Long story short, none of those things were true. He was on the correct bus. They never asked him his name,” the mother added. As usual, the video received many comments from people criticizing the teen for not complying but he was within his rights to resist an unlawful order. “In Georgia, regardless if you're a high school student or a regular student on the street, a regular person on the street, if you (have an) unlawfully encounter, you have an absolute right to question that encounter,” said attorney Griggs. “So for those who saying, ‘Oh, he should have just obeyed the officer, he should have done what the officer said, that’s not what the state law and the state constitution say.” Not surprisingly, Durden has previous allegations against him for abusing another student, according to WSB-TV, which spoke to another parent who said she had filed a complaint against the same cop months earlier. “The officer ... put my son in handcuffs, told him, ‘Do you know who I am’ and put his knee in his back. My son has asthma,” said the parent whose name was not published. Durden has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into excessive force. Watch Tuesday’s news conference here.
