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A longtime Tuscaloosa County commissioner was involved in a struggle with police at a Tuscaloosa elementary school Tuesday. Commissioner Reginald Murray, who has served District 4 for 29 years, was trying to attend an awards program at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School. Murray, according to police, arrived after the 9 a.m. program began. Per school policy, all external doors of the school are locked once a program begins. Several people were able to enter the lobby when another person exited, and Murray, who was not publicly identified by police, began knocking on the locked door to the auditorium where the program was taking place. A Tuscaloosa officer who was inside the auditorium cracked the door and told Murray he could not enter. Murray 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,” according to a TPD statement released Tuesday afternoon. Video posted to social media showed a chaotic scene with Murray on the ground and an officer on top of him trying to handcuff him. The officer eventually got the cuffs secured. Several bystanders were yelling at the police. The ordeal was taking place just outside the glass windows of the auditorium where students could be seen inside. During the struggle, Murray threatened to call the officer’s police chief and file a complaint on the officer. At one point, as Murray continued to resist, the officer put a Taser to his back but did not deploy the stun gun. Once handcuffed, Murray remained on his back on the floor and refused to stand up after school officials said they needed him to move so they could release the children into the hallway. “I’m going to stay on back until these cuffs come off,” Murray said. “During the course of the incident, the officer followed standard de-escalation protocols, which included multiple verbal warning and the display of a Taser. The Taser was not deployed.” The officer followed standard procedures to ensure the safety and order of the school environment, the police statement said. Murray was not arrested. Reached by cell phone Tuesday afternoon, Murray declined to comment but said he may do so at a later time.
