BROOKHAVEN, Miss. — Fans watching a halftime performance by a Mississippi high school marching band Friday night were outraged at a show that depicted students holding toy guns and an apparent shooting, The Daily Leader of Brookhaven reported.
According to WLBT, photos taken during the halftime show of a football game showed the visiting Forest Hill High School band dressed as doctors and nurses holding SWAT team members at gunpoint.
"At no point in time is this acceptable," Susan Mathes May wrote on Facebook. "At any school, at any performance, in any town."
The make-believe gunplay at Brookhaven High School comes less than a week after the shooting deaths of Brookhaven policemen Zach Moak and James White, who were killed last Saturday, the Daily Leader reported.
Gov. Phil Bryant said the performance was unacceptable.
The halftime performance by the Forest Hills High School band was supposed to depict a hostage scene from the move "John Q," Jackson Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Errick L. Greene said, WLBT reported.
"The band's performance does not depict the values and people in our community, and was incredibly insensitive to the students, families, law enforcement officials and the entire Brookhaven community," Greene said in a release Saturday, WLBT reported.