A Black pastor was watering his neighbor's flowers. Then the police showed up

Pastor Michael Jennings of Childersburg, Ala., says he was arrested and charged with a crime while watering his neighbor's flowers. (Childersburg Police Department/Screenshot by NPR)

A Black pastor in Alabama says he was wrongfully arrested and charged with a crime while he was watering his neighbor’s flowers.

Michael Jennings, a longtime pastor at Vision of Abundant Life Church in Sylacauga, Ala., says he was doing a neighborly deed of watering his out-of-town neighbor’s flowers, per their request, when a police officer showed up.

“I’m supposed to be here. I’m Pastor Jennings. I live across the street,” Jennings told the officer with Alabama’s Childersburg Police Department, in newly released body camera footage of his arrest obtained by NPR.