GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Video footage released by the Grand Rapids Police Department shows at least eight officers responded to detain five unarmed black youths March 24 after a report of a fight at basketball courts nearby.

The videos show one of the detained youths wailing and crying as he lay on the ground with his hands stretched above his head. Officers drew their weapons on the youths because they had received a report that one of them might be armed.

"Can you please put the gun down?" one of the boys asked.

Another youth is heard saying, "I do not want to die, bro."

The youths try to tell the officers that they have video on their phones of what happened, as one of the boys continues to cry, "Don't shoot me."

"We are not about to die we didn't do nothing," another of the boys says to try and comfort him.

Officers attempted to comfort the youths as well, though they had their guns drawn.

"Calm down, calm down, it'll be alright," Officer Caleb Johnson said. "They'll give you directions, OK?"

Johnson was the officer who found the group of five friends walking down Francis Avenue near Melville Street.

Johnson was looking for a group of teens that included a male wearing all black with a black backpack, and another male wearing a red top and a black and red Adidas zip-up jacket - descriptions given by a witness to another officer near the Kroc Center minutes after police responded to a report of a fight about 7:15 p.m. on the basketball courts.

The witness said he saw the male drop a revolver.

Ten minutes later when Johnson found the group of five youths on Francis Street, Johnson got out of the car with his weapon drawn.

Standing behind the door of his vehicle, Johnson said to the group, "Guys, get on the ground."

Confused, some of the youths did not immediately get on the ground - and so Johnson repeated the order.

"Hey, get over here," Johnson said, motioning with his arm. "Keep your hands where I can see them and get on the ground."

As other officers arrive on the scene, the youths were directed to stand up one at a time and walk backward toward the police with their hands on their heads. Once they reached the officers, video footage shows the boys kneeling to the ground and then being handcuffed.

Detaining all five youths took about 10 minutes, and officers kept their guns drawn the entire time.

After police determined that the five youths were in the wrong place at the wrong time, the boys waited in the back of police cruisers for their parents to arrive. All parties cooperated - but the parents were upset.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean no disrespect, but you all have to understand that's my baby," said Shawndryka Moore, mother of one of the boys, crying as she stood outside of the police cruiser with her son inside. "We don't deal with police. I don't have charges. We don't do this. All this stuff that goes on in this world - I worry about my kids every day. That's why I don't let them go nowhere."

Johnson and Officer Troy Colegrove spoke with another set of parents, Jacquetta and Bomesa Sims, after they arrived on Francis Street.

"We hate that it had to get to that point," Colegrove said. "We're just doing our job, because a lot of people out here have guns. We're not saying that your kids have guns - we're just doing our job."

The incident was recorded in eight in-car videos and 18 videos recorded by body-worn cameras. Footage from two of the officers involved obtained by The Grand Rapids Press through a Freedom of Information Act request included 12 of the body-worn camera videos.

Police Chief David Rahinsky has said he believes the body-worn camera footage would help the community understand why the department is standing behind the officers involved in the incident.

"The officers didn't do anything wrong. They acted on articulate facts from a witness moments earlier who said he saw them hand a gun to each other," Rahinsky said previously to The Press. "I think when the community sees what we've seen -- with the body worn camera footage; I think they'll have a different opinion. I respect their emotion. I think what we're hearing is a lot of grief and frustration to systemic issues."

The incident -- brought to light after the mothers presented the five youths at a city commission meeting March 28 to share their story -- has generated a call to action by community groups who feel the boys were unfairly targeted because of their race.

Police officials have stood by the officers involved, stating they were following policies. The police unions issued an "unprecedented" response calling for an end to protests of the incident, but community organizations still feel the GRPD needs to change how it operates.

Attention to racial equity is at a high point in Grand Rapids this spring, as it was on the top of Mayor Rosalynn Bliss' state of the city speech this year.

This week the city announced results of a racial profiling traffic stop study showing bias in the police department. Black drivers are twice as likely to be stopped by police in Grand Rapids than non-black drivers, according to a study done of 2013-2015 data.

To continue community dialogue on the study, Rahinsky will be holding "open door" office hours 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, April 21, at the police department at 1 Monroe Center St. NW.