The killing of Greg Gunn occurred on the morning of February 25, 2016, in Montgomery, Alabama. Gunn, a 58-year-old African-American man, was shot and killed near his home after fleeing from a stop-and-frisk initiated by Aaron Cody Smith, a white police officer. Smith was charged with murder and indicted by a

grand jury A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a pe ...

in 2016. The case came to trial in late 2019 following a change of venue to Ozark, Alabama. Smith was found guilty of

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

, and, in January 2020, was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Background

Gregory Gunn lived with his mother in the Mobile Heights neighborhood in Montgomery, Alabama. He graduated from St Jude High School in 1976 and from Alabama State University in 1981 with a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting and Finance. He is also a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. The neighborhood had experienced a number of burglaries around the time of the incident. According to Montgomery Police officer Aaron Cody Smith, Gunn matched the description of a burglary suspect: "dark clothing, black male".

Confrontation

Around 3:20am on February 25, 2016, Gunn was walking home unarmed from a card game when he encountered Smith, who was patrolling the neighborhood. Smith stopped Gunn and performed a stop-and-frisk; during the encounter, Gunn fled. Smith pursued, initially attempting to use a Taser to disable Gunn, and when that failed he began striking Gunn with his baton. According to Smith's later testimony, Gunn then picked up a painter's pole, which caused Smith to fire his service weapon in what he described as self-defense. Smith shot seven times, hitting Gunn five times and killing him.

Trial

Smith was placed on administrative leave following the incident and was arrested and charged with murder a week later following an

Alabama Bureau of Investigation The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, abbreviated as "ALEA", is a law enforcement agency serving the U.S. state of Alabama. It exists within the Executive Branch of State Government to coordinate public safety in Alabama.Ala. Code 1975, § 41-27-1 ...

inquiry. A grand jury indicted him for murder in November 2016. He was originally going to be tried in Montgomery, but the trial was moved to Ozark in the white-majority Dale County at the request of his defense attorneys. In the request to move the trial, Smith's defense attorneys said that racial prejudice in Montgomery, media coverage of the shooting, and the actions of city officials would all affect the jury. They also described Smith as "the first and only Montgomery Police Officer ever to be arrested and charged immediately after an officer-involved shooting." Eight judges recused themselves from the trial. During the trial, Smith testified that Gunn had grabbed a metal painter's pole during the fight, at which point he escalated to using his gun. Prosecutors argued that Gunn could not have picked up the pole based on photographs from the crime scene which showed a hat in Gunn's hand. A state investigator also testified that Gunn's fingerprints were not found on the pole. They also emphasized that Smith had given several different accounts of the fight in the years between the shooting and the trial. Smith had not turned on his

body Body may refer to: In science * Physical body, an object in physics that represents a large amount, has mass or takes up space * Body (biology), the physical material of an organism * Body plan, the physical features shared by a group of anima ...

or dashboard cameras before the stop, so several details of the incident were unclear. On November 22, 2019, a jury found Smith guilty of the

lesser included charge In criminal law, a lesser included offense is a crime for which all of the elements necessary to impose liability are also elements found in a more serious crime. It is also used in non-criminal violations of law, such as certain classes of tra ...

of manslaughter. Following the verdict, Gunn's brother Franklin said: "They brought this case to a very conservative county, expecting a different outcome...But I believe that we have seen the best of Alabama today. One bad apple in a bunch has been weeded out." On January 29, 2020, Smith was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He was released on an

appeal bond A supersedeas bond (often shortened to ''supersedeas''), also known as a defendant's appeal bond, is a type of surety bond that a court requires from an appellant who wants to delay payment of a judgment until an appeal is over. This is a featu ...

in March 2020 while appealing the conviction. In May 2021 the appeal was denied.

Wrongful death suit

The Gunn family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court against the city of Montgomery in February 2016. The suit was settled in April 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gunn, Greg 2016 controversies in the United States 2016 in Alabama African-American history of Alabama African-American-related controversies Deaths by person in Alabama February 2016 events in the United States History of African-American civil rights Law enforcement in Alabama Mass media-related controversies in the United States Montgomery, Alabama Race and crime in the United States 21st-century American trials

Background

Confrontation

Trial

Wrongful death suit

See also

References