Tennessee sheriff blames Beyoncé video for shots being fired at his house

On Monday night in Murfeesboro, TN., someone drove by Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold’s house and fired at least six shots. At a press conference this morning, Arnold said he thinks Beyoncé’s new song “Formation,” with its references to police brutality and killings of black people, might be to blame.

Arnold said he thinks that recent deaths of police officers were the result of Beyoncé’s performance at the Super Bowl, The Tennessean reported. “With everything that’s happened since the Super Bowl and with law enforcement as a whole, I think we’ve lost five to seven officers, five deputies, sheriffs, since Sunday’s Super Bowl,” he said. “That’s what I’m thinking, here’s another target on law enforcement,” he said.

A reporter at the press conference asked Arnold to clarify what he meant: “Well, you know, Beyoncé’s video and how that’s kind of bled over into other things, it seems like, about law enforcement,” he elaborated.

Here’s video of the press conference where Arnold made the comments:

Apparently Arnold wasn’t the only one scared of the song, and particularly Beyoncé and her black back up dancers’ Super Bowl performance. Just over a week ago, the National Sherrifs’ Association said they turned their back on the screen while she was performing–and more police associations have since said they thought the video was an attack on all police officers. And then there’s the Detroit police sergeant who’s in trouble after comparing Beyoncé’s dancers to the KKK.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BB25YxCD_V2/?tagged=formation

“Formation” does not include any reference to attacking police officers, for the record, but it does include images of Beyoncé crouching on top of a sinking police car in post-Katrina New Orleans, and a young black kid dancing in front of a line of police, with the message “Stop Shooting Us” graffitied in the background.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBfUGLnAZWP/?tagged=stopshootingus

The police department is still investigating the incident, The Daily News Journal reported. No injuries were reported.