Police bodycam footage shows Pepper firework incident

Jul. 17—Councilman Hunter Pepper kept two Decatur Police officers at his home, one for almost 30 minutes, on a busy holiday weekend as he argued about whether they should confiscate fireworks at the scene, claimed not to know who owned them and urged them not to enforce the city's fireworks ban.

In response to an open records request, the city allowed The Decatur Daily last week to view the body camera footage of Officer Celese Sharbutt and Sgt. Brandon Abbott's July 2 encounters with Pepper at his Modaus Road Southwest residence.

The city released the front page of Sharbutt's incident report, which mentions Pepper and two other adults at the scene, but would not provide her narrative report of the incident. No citations or arrests were made.

Decatur's fireworks ordinance says it's "unlawful for any person within the city or its police jurisdiction to sell, offer for sale, keep or have in possession, barter, exchange or give away, furnish at a public place or elsewhere or otherwise dispose of, use or explode any fireworks or pyrotechnics."

It defines the fireworks to include "blank cartridges, toy cannons, in which explosives are used, the type of balloons, firecrackers, sparklers, torpedoes, sky rockets, Roman candles, bombs or other fireworks of like construction ..."

Sharbutt responded to the complaint call from Morgan County 911 at 9:17 p.m. When she approaches Pepper, he is holding what appears to be a fireworks lighting stick, also known as a punk stick, but he tells the officer, "It's just a stick." He continues to deny that the fireworks were his.

"The fireworks were not directly confiscated from me," Pepper told The Daily on Thursday morning.

Sharbutt's bodycam footage shows she was on scene for 28 minutes and Abbott, her supervisor, was on scene for 14 minutes.

Pepper declines to cooperate with Sharbutt or to give her the remaining fireworks until Abbott responds to her request for assistance. Sharbutt joined DPD in May after serving four years as a Morgan County Sheriff's deputy, where she was named Deputy of the Year in 2021.

"You're not going to take possession of them," Pepper says, to which Sharbutt responds, "I can take possession of them if I want to." Pepper then says he won't "take anything seriously" until her sergeant arrives.

Pepper, sometimes inaudible on the body cam, says "no disrespect to you" several times to Sharbutt, but she tells her supervisor on the radio call that Pepper "is treating me like crap."

Pepper, 20, said Thursday that the police officer "showing up (at his home) was a waste of valuable resources when she could have been stopping real crime somewhere else in the city."

He continued to say that he knows it's illegal to fire or possess fireworks in Decatur and he wants to change the ordinance, which he stated is ruining the fun for the "blue-collar, hard-working people in this city."

In a Facebook post on Thursday after being questioned by The Daily, Pepper writes that he gathered with his family and friends July 2 to celebrate the Fourth of July since he had to work on the holiday. The post stayed up only briefly before he posted that Facebook had removed it with a warning that his use privileges could be suspended with further posts.

"During this gathering, within the city limits of Decatur, I and many others watched and took part in celebrating my blowing up the sky with (fireworks emoji) and it was a wonderful time!"

He previously denied to The Daily that he shot any fireworks, saying he "was with friends who were shooting them," and he evaded questions on the topic from the police.

Pepper continues writing in the social media post, "The officer stated they would need to remove the fun from my property."

"I stated this wasn't acceptable and became uncomfortable with the situation. Of course, my friends, family and myself were aggravated this was occurring but understandable it was the law," he writes in the post.

Later in his social media post, Pepper writes, "Let me add, should I have done what I did? No. The gathering we hosted technically was breaking the law. I support our police and always will ... ."

Councilman Carlton McMasters said he hasn't seen the bodycam footage but he is aware of the incident.

"The incident never should have occurred," McMasters said. "The law plainly states shooting or possessing fireworks is against the city of Decatur's fireworks ordinance, period, end of sentence. It shouldn't matter if it's Councilman Hunter Pepper or John Smith on 19th Avenue."

McMasters said Pepper knew before July 2 that fireworks are illegal, pointing out that the District 4 councilman sent an email to the mayor, City Council and Police Department prior to the holiday weekend stating his opposition to the fireworks ordinance.

McMasters said it doesn't matter whether the fireworks were Pepper's or one of his friend's.

"Hunter was with people who had possession of fireworks with his knowledge when he knows the possession of fireworks is illegal," McMasters said. "As councilmen, we should be held to a higher standard in obeying the law."

McMasters said Pepper was the reason for the "colossal waste of time and huge waste of resources that forced the police officer to request her supervising officer" on a busy Saturday night of a holiday weekend.

Council President Jacob Ladner said he's also aware of the incident but hasn't seen the bodycam footage.

"It's very obvious that Mr. Pepper understands the ordinance and he disagrees with it," Ladner said. "Do I speed, sure, but it's clear-cut that if I get caught, I have to pay a ticket. You can't shoot fireworks in the city of Decatur, especially if you're a city councilman."

Mayor Tab Bowling said he hasn't seen the bodycams footage but he's aware of the incident.

"Mr. Pepper finds himself in situations in which he often has to say, 'I'm sorry,' or 'I won't do it again.' Hopefully, he will eventually learn not to get himself in these situations," Bowling said.

Pepper made it clear July 5 in a newspaper interview, on July 2 to officers and in the email to city officials that he wants to change the fireworks ordinance. The other four councilmen have said they are willing to discuss possible changes.

The incident

When Sharbutt arrives on scene, Pepper immediately begins questioning her about whether the complainant called Morgan County 911 or the city's non-emergency number.

Sharbutt replies, "You can't shoot them in Decatur. I'm going to have to take them. How many more do you have?"

Pepper responds, "Who said you have to take them?"

Sharbutt says, "Sgt. Abbott. If we don't, people will keep shooting them."

Sharbutt then speaks with the sergeant on her radio. "Hey, I'm trying to take these fireworks. It's one of the, what's it called, council members. That Pepper dude."

Pepper keeps talking to Sharbutt even though she asks him to stop talking. She tells him somebody called in the complaint and she "saw them going off in the driveway."

"I'm not a fan —," Pepper begins.

Sharbutt replies, "I'm just not a fan of how you're acting toward me. ... You can't shoot fireworks in the city, and you know that."

Pepper says, "We are very aware that there's a law preventing that at this time, and we're going to take them ourselves — ." At other points in the bodycam footage Pepper said he would keep the fireworks but shoot them outside the city.

"You're not going to take anything. I'm taking the fireworks," the officer says.

After Sharbutt tells Pepper that her sergeant is on the way, he replies, "You're not going to take possession of them."

"I can take possession of them if I want to," she says

"We're going to wait (for Abbott to get here) before we take anything seriously," Pepper says.

Sharbutt says, "You're not going to tell me what I'm going to do. Your shooting fireworks is not allowed in the city. You obviously don't have any respect. You're not showing me any respect at all. You're telling me what I'm not going to do when you know, of all people, that you can't shoot fireworks in the city."

Pepper responds, "Like I said, no disrespect for you."

Sharbutt continues her radio conversation with Abbott and repeats, "He treated me like crap." She tells him that she did not see who was shooting the fireworks and Pepper and his two friends at the scene would not say who owns the fireworks.

When the sergeant arrives, Abbott approaches the duo and inquires, "What's going on here?"

Pepper says, "I have all respect for Ms. Celese here, but ... she comes out and she says you guys have got to quit and we're going to take them. I said ... we're going to take them out in the county.

"You have a job to do. We spent — I'm not going to say who spent a lot of money on this, but a lot of people spent a lot of money on this ... . We'll clean up our mess and we'll take them out to the county," he continued.

Abbott informs Pepper that department policy maintains enforcement is at "the officer's discretion. That's the problem we've got, we've got a lot of people not enforcing it. She has decided this is how she's going to handle it. There's a policy we enforce. It's at the officer's discretion and if that's what she decided to do in this case; that's the way we're going to do it."

Sharbutt and Abbott both tell Pepper at separate points when asking for identification that they're writing a report.

"We're going to write in the report, since y'all are saying nobody possessed it, that you're being uncooperative," Sharbutt said.

"I'm not being uncooperative. I'm just saying that everybody here —," Pepper says.

Abbott breaks in, "The report's going to reflect that you're being uncooperative. Because that's what's happening. 'I don't know who owns it' — that's what you're saying.

"Nobody knows who possesses, who owns these fireworks?" Abbott asks.

Pepper doesn't answer, instead responding, "I tell you what. Y'all finish up what you've got to do ... and we'll handle this on Tuesday morning for sure."

At one point in the encounter, Sharbutt tells Abbott she wants to issue a citation but she doesn't know who owns the fireworks and she didn't see who was actually shooting them.

Pepper acts surprised that Sharbutt wants to write him a citation and he again refuses to tell her who has possession of the fireworks.

"I hope she can understand this has gone a little too far," he tells the sergeant.

Abbott replies, "Actually we used to do this all the time. We've had officers stop doing it, that's why things have gotten out of hand."

"Well, they should stop doing it," Pepper says.

"It's the law," the sergeant says.

Pepper says, "It's private property and it's very disrespectful —"

"You're being unreasonable," Abbott says.

Pepper asks, "Am I being unreasonable?"

"Yes. You're being unreasonable," Abbott says.

Pepper says, "Well, tell Ms. Sharbutt that she'd better get her book out —"

"As a city councilman you're going to have that attitude, and you're going to be that way with law enforcement?" Abbott asks.

Pepper responds, "This is bull. This is bull. If she wants to go that route, she'd better get her ticket book.

"If she's going to go that route (and write a citation), then we'll have a conversation about it Tuesday morning. ... By golly, she's by the book more than anyone alive. ... She was called to the area and immediately assumed it was our house," he continues.

Pepper tells Abbott that, if she issues a citation, he expects Sharbutt to "do her duty" and issue a citation to everyone shooting fireworks in the city."

In his discussion with Pepper, Abbott reminds him that fireworks are illegal even though not everyone likes the ordinance.

"We're operating under the laws we've got this second. What would you like to see her come out and do?" Abbott asks.

Pepper says in response, "(Tell us to) stop what you're doing and be done with it.... This is something that I think is kind of strange that we enforce something like this. I'm going to encourage y'all not to enforce this law."

— bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432. Twitter @DD_BayneHughes.