Just when we thought racism was over, then this happened. January 25th, 2022, in Brookhaven. It happened that D’Monterrio Gibson, a Black FedEx driver was chased and shot at by two white men in Mississippi because they felt he was looking suspicious.
After the incident, the suspects, father and son 58-year-old Gregory Case and 35-year-old Brandon Case, were arrested earlier in the week.
However, they were quickly released on bond.
D’Monterrio Gibson, 24-year-old who was the victim says he believes they were “undercharged.”
Although, nobody was injured but the chase and gunfire have sparked social media for racism.
D’Monterrio Gibson Lawyers says more serious charges, including hate crime charges, are warranted in what they believe was a racially motivated assault.
Gregory Case faces a charge of conspiracy, while Brandon Case is charged with of shooting into a motor vehicle.
The attorney Carlos Moore said “I want both of them charged with attempted murder,”.
According to the AP, “Moore and attorney James Bryant compared the incident to the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was running empty-handed through a Georgia subdivision in 2020 when three white strangers chased him down and blasted him with a shotgun.”
D’Monterrio Gibson shared his story with Mississippi Free Press. According to him, he had just delivered a package on the said date when he saw a white pickup truck blocking the end of a drive.
The suspects (father and son) got extremely close to Gibson and start blowing their horn,”.
Gibson proceeded to leaving the driveway. But, as he was leaving the driveway, he said they started to try, to cut him off.
But, his instincts kick in, he swerve around him, and I started hitting the grass trying to get out of the neighborhood because he wasn’t sure what their intentions are.”
“I drive down about two or three houses,” Gibson said. “There’s another guy standing in the middle of the street pointing a gun at my windows and signaling to me to stop with his hands, as well as mouthing the word, ‘Stop.’
I shook my head saying a no, I hide behind the steering wheel, and I swerve around him as well. As I swerve around him, he starts firing shots into my vehicle.”
D’Gibson said both father and son then followed him in their pickup truck all the way to the interstate.
When he called police, he was told authorities had received a call about a suspicious person at the same address at the same time.
“I said, ‘Sir, I’m not a suspicious person. I’m a FedEx worker. I was just doing my job and they shot at me,'” Gibson told the Free Press.
When Gibson went to the police station the following day, he said a white officer reportedly asked him he had been “doing anything to make them think (he) looked suspicious.”
“I felt disrespected at that point, because even if I did, they still can’t take the law into their own hand,” Gibson said.
According to the Free Press, Gibson said the police chief “tried to emphasize how unracist the town (of Brookhaven) was, which seemed odd to me.”
“Brookhaven has a history of lynching,” the newspaper reported. “In 1955, civil rights activist Lamar Smith died after someone shot him on the lawn of the Lincoln County Courthouse in Brookhaven. Local police never charged any suspects with the crime.”
Police chief Kenny Collins, who is Black, pushed back against allegations of racism in Brookhaven, according to the AP.
“We’re not going to have outsiders coming in trying to stir that up,” Collins said. “Brookhaven is not a racist, prejudiced town. You can’t judge a town by the actions of two individuals.”
Wow, guys should we be afraid? It is as if Racism is never going down.
If you were D’Monterrio Gibson, what would you do?
