As nineteen year old Shanell Madison of Pearl, Mississippi tells it, she and her twin brother Terrell were sitting peacefully on the balcony of their apartment on Tuesday when they heard shots from a police shootout below. Then Terrell began recording the scene with his cellphone, and that brought the police bursting into the apartment to arrest both of them.

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“The police came up here after they took his phone,” Shanell told WLBT News. “They slammed him down and arrested him, and I’m like ‘Why are y’all arresting him’, and then they grabbed me and slammed me also and arrested me.”

The twins’ mother, Karen Madison, believes the police became upset because she moved her truck when she saw them using it as a shield during the shootout. She says that none of the officers on the scene would tell her why her children had been arrested and taken to jail.

“Lieutenant comes down tells me ‘Yeah I have your kids here. They’re safe, but they’re gonna be here until I say they can be released’,” Madison recalled.

The twins were let out of jail several hours later, but the police kept the SIM card from Terrell’s phone and Madison was told they had been charged with disorderly contact. Their court appearance is scheduled for May 17.

(h/t pixiq.com)

This video is from WLBT, May 2, 2012.