A Montgomery police officer was charged with murder Wednesday for allegedly shooting to death 58-year-old Gregory Gunn early in the morning of 25 February.

The officer, 23-year-old Aaron Smith, was arrested and his bond was set at $150,000, Montgomery county district attorney Daryl Bailey said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon.

The case was the city’s first fatal police shooting in five years, and has sparked several protests around the area in the week since. At Wednesday’s press conference, Bailey attempted to defuse tensions by distancing the city from the act. “I want to be crystal clear,” Bailey said. “This arrest is in no way an indictment on the Montgomery police department. In fact, 99.9% of Montgomery police officers do an exceptional job.”

Local attorney Mickey McDermott, who is representing Smith, said that the city only arrested his client because of the pressure local officials felt from protests.



“This is a misuse of the process,” he said, saying that usually a grand jury would weigh whether an officer’s actions demanded arrest. “But because of this social media culture that we’re living in, this officer was thrown under the bus. I assure you we are going to stop that bus.”

The shooting happened about 3.20am on McElvey Street in the west Montgomery neighborhood of Mobile Heights. The neighborhood is mostly black, and Gunn’s father is remembered there as one of the first black police officers sworn into the local police department.

“My brother is not a violent person and never has been,” Kenneth Gunn told local television channel WBRC.

Gunn had spent the night playing cards at a home down the street. In a statement just after the shooting, Police Chief Ernest Finley released a statement saying Smith had stopped a “suspicious” person on foot.

Attorney Tyrone Means, who now represents the Gunn family, objected Wednesday to that description. “Trayvon Martin was a black kid walking in a predominantly white neighborhood, and someone just thought he looked suspicious,” Means told the Associated Press. “Greg Gunn was in a community in which he was well-known and well-loved. That’s scary.”

Finley said a struggle ensued between the officer, who was white, and Gunn, who was black. The confrontation lasted for about a block before Smith shot and killed Gunn.

Gunn may have been carrying an extendable painter’s pole – for reaching eaves with a paint roller, but reports are conflicting. But neighbors said when walking after dark in Mobile Heights it’s common to carry a stick or branch for safety. On the night of Gunn’s death, neighbors reported hearing multiple gunshots – four or five – and Gunn calling for his mother, who lived on the block.

In the days after the shooting the state bureau of investigation took over the case, which is common in officer-involved shootings, and evidence – apparently including body-camera footage – was turned over to the state bureau of investigation (SBI).

Mayor Todd Strange asked the SBI to expedite its investigation, but the inquiry couldn’t keep pace with public reaction.

Protests culminated Tuesday at a city council meeting where protesters arrived holding signs that read “Black Lives Matter”. As Strange started to address the council, local activist Karen Jones moved to his podium and held her sign to block his face. After a tense standoff, police officers then removed Jones from the podium and escorted her back to her seat. Strange then called for a moment of silence in remembrance of both Gunn and Smith, who at that point had not been charged.

According to McDermott, Smith’s attorney, Smith was on a routine patrol, “working alone in a high crime area”. He stopped and questioned Gunn, “who outweighed him considerably.” McDermott said Gunn pushed Smith away and fled, then Smith used his taser multiple times. Then, McDermott said, Gunn “armed himself with a pole. Not some little stick, but a metal pole. He took a body position, crouching and preparing to swing, and the officer used appropriate lethal force.”



McDermott said Smith’s family is going into hiding, after receiving death threats.

In the meantime, Strange said, the city of Montgomery has stepped entirely away from the case, and is not conducting its own investigation. Only the SBI, he said, knows the details of the incident, including any images recorded on Smith’s body camera.