Moments after police arrested an Alabama pastor watering his neighbor’s plants, an officer who witnessed Michael Jennings spraying the foliage with a water hose expressed doubt at Jennings’ version of events, according to body cam footage released Tuesday.

Jennings, a Black pastor at Vision of Abundant Life Ministries in Sylacauga, was arrested on obstruction charges in the late May incident in Childersburg. The charges have since been dropped.

Lawyers for Jennings obtained body cam footage from Childersburg police and released the video Tuesday, which also showed that Jennings identified himself as “Pastor Jennings” and officers denying that the minister identified himself.

The footage begins with an officer approaching Jennings on May 22 as the pastor waters plants at the home of his neighbor, who is out of town.

An officer then demands Jennings show him identification but the pastor objects, saying he “did nothing wrong.”

“I’m supposed to be here. I’m Pastor Jennings. I live across the street. I’m looking out for their house while they’re gone,” the minister tells the officer in the 20-minute video.

Another officer then shouts at Jennings, “You have to identify yourself to me. You understand what I’m telling you?”

Jennings then shouts that the officers are racially profiling him and dares police to “lock me up,” vowing to file a lawsuit against them.

Handcuffs are then placed on the pastor as officers continue to investigate.

They then find the neighbor who called police reporting a suspicious person.

That neighbor then realizes she made a mistake and vouches for Jennings.

“This is probably my fault,” she says. “I didn’t know it was him.”

One of the Childersburg officers then explains to Jennings that he needs to identify himself when police ask him.

“Anytime the police come out and we want to identify you, you have to identify yourself. Because there’s a reasonable suspicion. There’s ... a reasonable suspicion that you’re here. It’s not a crime. If you would’ve said yeah here’s my name …” the officer says.

Jennings then responds: “I said my name, ‘Pastor Jennings.’”

“That’s not a name, that’s a pastor,” the officer says.

When the minister tells police, “I told you I was here watering flowers,” an officer responds, “How do I know that’s the truth?”

“Because I had the water hose in my hand,” Jennings said. “I was watering flowers.”

Jennings was eventually taken to the police station and charges with obstructing governmental operations.

The charge was ultimately dropped, but lawyers for the pastor said that won’t be the end of the matter, contending Jennings’ detainment amounted to “kidnapping” and was an “unlawful arrest.”

Childersburg police “may think all they have to do is drop the charges and this all goes away,” said Bethaney Embry Jones, one of Jennings’ attorneys. “This was a crime, not a mistake. I would hope that the Childersburg Police Department would understand the difference.”

As of Thursday afternoon, there were no lawsuits filed against police by Jennings.

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