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Alabama police Officer Aaron Smith is facing murder charges over the shooting death of Greg Gunn, a 58-year-old Black man who was killed last week in the city of Montgomery.
Smith, a 23-year-old white man, was arrested Wednesday, The Guardian reported.
According to local media, Gunn was killed a mere block from his home in the mostly Black neighborhood of Mobile Heights.
The death of Gunn was the first fatal police shooting in five years in Montgomery.
The shooting prompted protests in the city, including a direct action at a City Council meeting
Relatives told local television channel WBRC that they believed Gunn was stopped by police because he was wearing a hooded sweater.
Shortly after the incident, police Chief Ernest Finley said Officer Smith had stopped a “suspicious” person but declined to offer any more details.
Police claimed that the officer and Gunn were involved in a brief struggle before Smith fired several shots. Gunn reportedly died at the scene. His family told local station WSFA he had been shot five times.
Scott Muhammad, a witness who also recorded the aftermath of the shooting, said Smith shot Gunn when he was on the ground. He added that Smith did not try to attend to Gunn after he was shot.
Kenneth Gunn, Greg's brother, backed that claim.
“They stood over him and watched him die after they executed him,” Gunn told the Washington Post.
Other witnesses said Gunn was pleading for help, pounding on his neighbor's window before being shot.
An investigation into the shooting was turned over to the State Bureau of Investigations. Evidence included body camera footage.
Police allege that Gunn was armed with a painter's pole, but his family denies he would ever attack police and suggested the mention of an alleged weapon is an attempt to cover-up the officer's actions.
The details surrounding the case invoke memories of several other Black men in the United States who have been killed by police.
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"From my experience of this neighborhood. It's been police harassment — people always on guard for the police. They don't feel safe, and he was singled out. Not because he was doing anything wrong, because he was Black. He was black at three in the morning," said Kenneth Gunn.
Smith's lawyer told The Guardian that the charges against the officer were politically motivated. His lawyer used the kinds of tropes seen in other cases, suggesting that Gunn was a danger to Smith because of his size.
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