A Georgia high school student was tased by an officer during an altercation on a Fulton County school bus on Thursday (Dec. 18). The incident was captured on video and quickly went viral, prompting the teen to hire a civil rights attorney.
18-year-old Lanier Johnson-Hunt says a bus driver at Langston Hughes High School incorrectly believed he was on the wrong bus, and the issue between the two escalated from there, leading to the incident with the resource officer.
Johnson-Hunt first interacted with a bus driver, who believed he didn’t belong on the bus. After he refused to get off and insisted that he was on the right bus, a school resource officer tased him multiple times to force him off.
“As soon as I got on the bus, the bus driver told me I wasn’t supposed to be on the bus and today she gonna make sure I’m gonna get off the bus, so don’t even sit down,” Johnson-Hunt said.
After the bus driver contacted school administrators, things returned to normal briefly as the administrators ordered all the students to get off the bus. Johnson-Hunt complied with the order and exited the bus with his classmates. When everyone originally on the bus was allowed back on, Johnson-Hunt joined them, prompting a school resource officer to be contacted.
Johnson-Hunt was allegedly left with burn marks on his throat and chest from the taser.
According to Fulton County Schools, the officer was removed from active duty after the incident.
Following the altercation with the resource officer, Johnson-Hunt retained the services of national civil rights attorney Harry Daniels. During a press conference on Tuesday (Dec. 23), Daniels, who stood alongside fellow attorney Gerald Griggs, Johnson-Hunt and the 18-year-old’s mother.
“The administration should have done more to check before having this encounter,” Griggs said. “These types of situations turn deadly, and we are glad we are here, not for a deadly encounter, but we are upset we have to do this over and over again.”
Daniels added, “The video speaks for itself… At one point, the officer had his hands around his [Lanier’s] neck, slamming him back into the seat, then using his taser in a drive-stun mode, and that’s when the taser actually is pressed to the body and the prongs actually [cause] burning sensations to the body.”
Johnson-Hunt’s mother defended her son, saying, “At the end of the day, he was on the right bus. He didn’t lie to anyone. He wasn’t trying to fight the police officer and if they generally would have just asked they would have knew he was on the right bus. It’s just scary. He could have died. You tased him in the middle of his chest.”
You can watch the full press conference about the incident below.
