As we’ve noted, the Mannequin Challenge is a very good meme that we’ve enjoyed seeing everyone from Paul McCartney to Michelle Obama to a bunch of cute 4-year-old kids try. Also caught up in the craze were a group of gun-owning Alabamans, who shared a Facebook video of themselves doing the challenge while holding a variety of handguns in a frozen drive-by shooting pose.
The good news for the crew is that their video was a minor hit, racking up a reported 80,000 views on Facebook and most likely tens of thousands more on other social media networks. The bad news is the clip lead to an investigation by the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, which ended in the arrests of two men and the seizure of weapons and marijuana.
AL.com reports that Kenneth Fennell White, 49, and Terry Brown, 23, were arrested early Tuesday morning. White has been charged with is charged with first-degree possession of marijuana and possession of a firearm by a violent felon, and Brown has been charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and loitering (once he was in jail, officers found marijuana in his clothing, so they tacked on a charge of promoting prison contraband).
“At 5:02 this morning,” Capt. Mike Salomonsky said at a press conference. “The Madison County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team, the City of Huntsville Police Department SWAT team, and also ATF were present when we executed the search warrant at that residence.”
Salomonsky also confirmed that his office began investigating after seeing the video. “You have a lot of people with firearms at one address,” he said. “And you have to ask yourself the question, ‘Why?’ and the second question you have to ask yourself: is it a public safety issue?”
It should be noted that the group’s video did not include Rae Sremmurd’s “Black Beatles,” which in addition to being one of the best songs of the year is also the unofficial soundtrack to the Mannequin Challenge. Perhaps that was the source of their bad luck.
