LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — Newly-obtained body camera footage shows the moments rapper Armani White was arrested in London after dancing on a highway barrier during what police say was a dangerous video shoot on I-75.
The Oct. 12 incident began as a roadside video production but ended with White being led away in handcuffs after multiple witnesses called police reporting people running across the busy highway.
Body camera video captures the encounter between White and officers just before his arrest. When asked what he was doing, White's team can be heard saying they were recording a video while traveling to Atlanta.
"We were just recording a video. We're on our way to Atlanta so we were shooting videos," said a member of White's team.
Police say they received multiple calls from concerned drivers who spotted people running across I-75 and one person dancing on a concrete barrier. Officers explained to White's team that the incident was too dangerous to ignore.
"Under different circumstances it'd be pretty dope. But with all of this going on..." an officer said in the body camera footage. "There's no possible way he can't go to jail? No, he's going to jail. He can't be up on a barrier wall like that. We got people calling in, we can't have that."
The video shows White's team telling police they had just performed at Megacorp Pavilion in Newport and randomly stopped to shoot content while traveling to Atlanta.
One officer described witnessing the dangerous stunt: "I don't know why he thought that was a good idea at all. He said they were traveling and I guess they talked about it. He said they just decided randomly to get out and shoot some content. Probably the worst -- when I come up I looked down randomly and saw him running across the interstate, then I saw him jumping the barrier wall, I thought, he's gonna run across the other side. And then he got up there and started flossin..."
Members of White's team apologized for the inconvenience, with his videographer even offering to take responsibility for the stunt.
"Is there any way I can go in his place? Like it was my idea," the videographer asked. Officers declined, explaining White was the one performing the dangerous act.
Police emphasized that the danger to drivers and multiple calls from the community left them with little choice but to make an arrest.
"So somebody had already call in already? Oh yeah, we had multiple calls," an officer explained. "Here on the side of the road? I'm telling you man they called like crazy. Five minutes here. Yeah seriously. We don't drive down here for nothing."
Despite the tense circumstances, police and White can be heard having a friendly conversation during the ride to the Laurel County Detention Center, discussing his music career.
White was charged with disorderly conduct. After posting bond, he was escorted out of jail in plain clothes.
