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UP FRONTFriday 4 March 2016
Defense lawyer: Rush to judgment in Alabama police shooting
JAY REEVES ficer is being sacrificed to Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange, foreground, with Police Chief Ernest Finley, left, speaks at a
Associated Press quell unrest in a city that news conference in Montgomery, Ala., Wednesday, March 2, 2016, after Montgomery District At-
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — doesn’t want a repeat of torney Daryl Bailey announced that Montgomery Police Officer Aaron Smith was arrested in con-
Officer Aaron Smith is the its past, or fiery protests like
white son of a retired rank- those in Ferguson, Missouri. nection to the shooting death of Greg Gunn.
ing Montgomery police of- “It simply boils down to (AP Photo / Montgomery Advertiser, Mickey Welsh)
ficial, and Gregory Gunn a political calculation to
was a black man neigh- placate activists, to pre-
bors knew for working hard vent another Ferguson,”
and walking everywhere defense attorney Mickey
he went. McDermott said in an in-
Their lives intersected early terview Thursday. “That’s
one morning last week, just the world we’re living in
and Gunn lay dead after a now.”
hail of gunfire — a shooting Mayor Todd Strange didn’t
that recalled tense times return a message seeking
years ago when Montgom- comment on McDermott’s
ery police were continu- claims.
ally at odds with the city’s But District Attorney Daryl
black community. Bailey has said the 23-year-
Now, with Gunn dead old Smith was arrested be-
amid a national debate cause state investigators
over police violence in mi- found probable cause to
nority communities, Smith’s believe he broke the law
lawyer argues the career when he shot Gunn, 58, six
of an innocent young of- days earlier.
An autopsy showed the killed Gunn around 3:20
man was shot five times, a.m. on Feb. 25, officials
possibly while crouching on said.
the ground shielding him- Gunn, according to a
self, a family lawyer said neighbor, was a laborer
Thursday. who did odd jobs at area
Authorities won’t discuss businesses, sometimes two
evidence that led them to at a time, and also cut
charge Smith. McDermott, grass in his neighborhood.
who served as a Mont- Smith thought Gunn was
gomery police officer be- “suspicious” so he got out
fore going to law school, of his patrol car and ap-
said the arrest skipped proached the man on foot,
the normal protocol of let- police said.
ting grand juries consider Colvin Hinson said he his
whether to charge officers wife and their 13-year-old
who use deadly force while daughter were asleep
on duty. when Gunn started bang-
Smith’s arrest did seem to ing on his front door and
soothe anger in the black calling his name in the mid-
community in Montgom- dle of the night. Then he
ery, a city of 205,000 that heard gunshots.
is 56 percent black. Rela- Opening the door, Hin-
tives and friends gathered son saw Gunn dying in the
at the shooting scene and yard, Hinson said. While au-
praised the move within thorities initially said Gunn
hours after the charges had a rod or stick used as
were announced. a handle on a paint roller,
“Right is right and wrong is Hinson said the pole be-
wrong,” said Aaryn Jordan, longed to him and had
a nephew of Gunn. been in the yard for several
Gunn’s mother, Nellie Ruth weeks.
Gunn, told reporters she Hinson had known Gunn
wanted Smith to attend her for years, describing him as
son’s funeral, set for Satur- a hard-working man who
day. walked everywhere be-
“All I want is justice,” she cause he had no car.
said. McDermott said Gunn used
Smith, who worked the “deadly force” on Smith
overnight shift in what Mc- before the officer opened
Dermott described as a fire, but he wouldn’t go into
high-crime area, shot and details. q
