Trey Gibson, the fun-loving associate pastor of families at First Baptist Church of Dothan, Alabama, has been fired following his arrest for leaving one of his preschool-aged children alone in a vehicle while he drank and dined for hours in a bar and restaurant.
Eyewitnesses told Dothan Police that Gibson, a married father of two, left his child, who is younger than 5, in his SUV while he drank at a bar last Saturday into early Sunday, according to News 4. After leaving the bar, Gibson drove across the parking lot to a 24-hour restaurant and left the child alone again.
Lt. Scott Owens of the Dothan Police Department told USA TODAY that a concerned patron told police that a child was left unattended in a vehicle.
"When officers arrived, people directed them to a parking lot where they found the vehicle with the child inside unattended and ID'd Gibson as the owner of [the] vehicle and the child's family member,” Owens said.
Gibson was taken into custody “pretty highly intoxicated,” according to Owens, and he was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, which is a misdemeanor.
In a statement to News 4, officials at First Baptist Church of Dothan confirmed he had been fired while noting, “This incident occurred on the staff member’s personal time and in no way involved any of the students or children who participate in our student ministry.”
Gibson’s child was examined by paramedics and was found to be unharmed. The child remained in the custody of the Alabama Department of Human Resources until other family members arrived on the scene.
"Regardless of the temperature, someone could have come and kidnapped the child or the child could have had a medical emergency," Owens told USA Today. "It's just an overall unsafe issue to leave a child in the car (alone).”
First Baptist Church of Dothan has scrubbed Gibson from their website and removed most mentions of him on their social media. The church revealed in a Facebook post spotlighting Gibson in 2022 that he had joined the church in March 2020. Prior to that he served at First Baptist Church New Orleans for four years as a student minister.
“Trey loves traveling to new places, trying new foods (especially desserts), coffee shops, wedding receptions (mainly the dance floor), hanging with my family, and long afternoon naps on a weekend!!” the post said.
First Baptist Church of Dothan also noted that Gibson had been a member of the all-male Mardi Gras dance group, “The 610 Stompers,” since 2017.
“They’ve danced miles and miles of parade routes, at special events, several NBA and NFL halftime shows, and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade,” the church noted.
The dance group, which was formed in New Orleans in 2009, explains on its website that its members “are Ordinary Men with Extraordinary Moves.”
“We have evolved and grown into a 100-man strong, all male dance group whose bold mission is to return the ordinary man to the glory of dance. Men from their 20s to their 80s now proudly call themselves 610 Stompers, drawn from all walks of life and from across the country,” the group notes.
“While we come from many places, New Orleans is our birthplace and will always be our home. Only here could we create and nurture and grow the singular brand of entertainment we bring to the masses. As diverse as we are, we each share a passion for dance that fires when we see the faces of our fans light up as we dance by.”
