Photo: FedEx driver D'Monterrio Gibson, speaks to the press about being shot at by a white father and son while delivering packages in Brookhaven, Feb. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) / Photo by Obi Onyeador on Unsplash
A white father and son have been charged with attempted murder for chasing and shooting at a Black Federal Express driver while the driver was delivering packages in Brookhaven, Mississippi.
Federal law enforcement officials are looking into the Jan. 24 shooting, according to Carlos Moore, Gibson’s lawyer. Moore said he had spoken with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division and learned from the Brookhaven police that the FBI on Thursday collected materials related to the case.
FedEx driver D’Monterrio Gibson, 24, said he was delivering packages to a home around 7 p.m. on Jan. 24 when he saw a white pickup truck coming from the house behind it. The truck started approaching Gibson and blowing the horn at him.
Gregory Case was driving the truck chasing Gibson while his son, Brandon Case, was in the street pointing a gun at Gibson, according to affidavits. Brandon Case fired shots at Gibson.
Brandon Case was charged with a felony for attempting to cause bodily injury with a firearm and a deadly weapon by shooting at an occupied vehicle with Gibson inside, according to an affidavit provided to CNN by the Brookhaven Municipal Court. The affidavit was signed on Jan. 31.
Gregory Case was charged with unlawfully and feloniously conspiring with Brandon Case to commit aggravated assault by attempting to cause bodily injury to Gibson, states the affidavit, signed Feb. 1.
Gibson was driving a Hertz rental van with two large Hertz stickers on the back and was wearing a FedEx jacket, shirt, and pants.
While the FedEx driver was trying to drive away, he said he heard “at least five shots and heard the bullets hitting the van,” according to an incident report filed Jan. 25 by the Brookhaven Police Department.
Gibson informed one of his managers at FedEx that someone was shooting at him. She told him to get back to the station as fast as he could. The truck, now with both men inside, chased Gibson out of Brookhaven and to the interstate, Gibson said.
Gibson also said the police were not helpful initially. When he called Brookhaven Police dispatch, the dispatcher cut him off and asked whether he had been at a certain address, and Gibson said he had. The dispatcher told Gibson they had just received a report of a suspicious person at that address. Gibson said he told dispatch he wasn’t a suspicious person — he was a FedEx worker and was just doing his job.
The following morning, Gibson went with a FedEx manager to the Brookhaven police station, where he said police weren’t taking him seriously.
One officer asked Gibson, “Did you do anything to make them think you were suspicious?”
Gibson said, “That was a slap in the face to me.”
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump compared the incident to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, who was pursued and shot to death by three white men on Feb. 23, 2020, while jogging in a neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia. All three men were sentenced to life in prison.
“Gregory Case and his son Brandon chased and SHOT at FedEx driver D’Monterrio Gibson while making deliveries. This is eerily similar to Ahmad Arbery’s killing! They need to be charged w/ hate crimes & we need an investigation into their disturbing actions!” Crump tweeted.
Twitter users agreed.
“Yep. Even the police officer should be investigated for racist bias ‘Gibson said a white officer asked him if he had been doing anything to make them think (he) looked suspicious,'” tweeted Dr. Palma Seljan (@PalmaSeljan), a cardiologist.
“The police needs to be investigated too asking a question implicating that the black driver must have been doing something suspicious. Sounds like a racist town in general,” tweeted Clayton Bigsby (@Anti_Racist2009).
FedEx supervisors allegedly told Gibson to “complete his route” after the incident. Lawyer Rodney Diggs said Gibson made complaints to multiple supervisors but they “didn’t show any concern.”
Gibson was on unpaid leave after his vehicle was shot, according to a Feb. 11 report by WLBT, an NBC-affiliate TV station in Jackson, Mississippi. Attorney Moore said FedEx reinstated Gibson’s pay retroactively to Jan. 31 and is paying for him to get therapy.
“Yes, and why was this young man placed on unpaid administrative leave by @FedEx ? Why did the management at FedEx react so unconcern..unconcerned… Fed Ex needs to be held accountable too,” tweeted Jai Jai (@jwngreen1).
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In a statement to CNN, attorney Moore said he thinks Gibson was targeted by the Cases “because he is African-American. He was simply doing his job as a FedEx driver in full uniform when he was chased and assaulted by gunfire.”
Moore added, “We believe that they should have been arrested, and the charges need to be upgraded from conspiracy and shooting into a vehicle to attempted murder. Because if the roles were reversed, and he’d done this to them, he would have been immediately arrested for attempted murder and gone to jail that same night. He wouldn’t have been allowed to wait a week to turn himself in.”
Photo: FedEx driver D’Monterrio Gibson, speaks about his recent experience where he alleges he was fired upon and chased by a white father and son while delivering packages on his route in Brookhaven, at a news conference in Ridgeland, Miss., Feb. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)/Photo by Obi Onyeador on Unsplash/ https://unsplash.com/@obionyeador?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText/ https://unsplash.com/s/photos/fedex-truck?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText
