Mr Thomas Bojangles dies in New Orleans county jail house.

Local tap dancer vagabond known as Mr Bojangles has died in a New Orleans police cell. He is the 8th black man this month to die in police custody under suspicious circumstances.

The much loved street bum Thomas Bojangles was a well known character on the New Orleans French Quarter circuit where he would regular bars and county fairs dancing for drinks and tips. Bojangles was arrested and thrown in the county jail drunk tank following a disturbance at a Creole jazz club involving a transvestite go-go dancer and a bluegrass washboard player.

Ralph Kapenski, jail guard said, “Yeah as always he’d end up here all hours of the night and start pissing everyone off. Starting a commotion and dancing all that jive ass shit, getting on everyone’s nerves. Was only a matter of time until things went bad.”

A witness said, “It all got’s out of control that night when Bojangles started jabbering some crazy talk about his dead ol’ dog and such. Then a good old boy guard pulled his 32, pointed it at Bojangles’ feet and told him to dance. But he didn’t not dance. So he dished out a kickin’ on his ass.”

When asked of the incident Kapenski denied all knowledge. Bojangles was 73 years old.