Two white men in Mississippi are facing charges after they allegedly chased and shot at a Black FedEx driver delivering packages in their neighborhood.
The FedEx driver, 24-year-old D'Monterrio Gibson, says he was delivering packages in Brookhaven, Mississippi, late last month. While he was wearing a FedEx uniform, the truck he was driving that day was a Hertz rental van with company markings on the side.
He said he had just finished a delivery around 7 p.m. on Jan. 24 when he noticed a white pickup truck approaching his van. The truck began honking its horn.
Gibson ignored the truck and continued driving through the neighborhood. That's when he encountered a man standing in the road with a gun pointed at him. The man indicated that he wanted Gibson to stop the truck.
"So I just started shaking my head like, no, I'm not going to stop. And I ducked behind the steering wheel and I swerve around him as well," Gibson told WLBT-TV in Jackson, Mississippi. "As I swerve around him, he starts firing shots at the back of my vehicle. And I'm hearing all the shots and I'm just ducking, because I don't know if they're coming inside or nothing."
According to NBC News, Gibson called his manager at FedEx, who told him to return to the distribution center. He says the pickup truck continued to follow him until he reached the interstate.
At that point, Gibson called the police to report what happened. According to CNN, a dispatcher told him that they had just received a call about a suspicious person at the same address.
The next day, Gibson and his boss at FedEx went to the Brookhaven Police Department to file a report. There, they showed police photos of the bullet holes that were left behind by shots fired the day before.
The suspects in the incident, Gregory Case and his son, Brandon Case, were not arrested until Feb. 1 — more than a week after the shooting. The Mississippi Free Press reports that they were allowed to turn themselves in.
Police charged Gregory Case with conspiracy and Brandon Case with aggravated assault.
Attorneys for Gibson say that the charges against the Cases are too lenient.
"Had it been a black father and son duo that shot at a white young man doing his job, do you think they would've allowed them a week to rest at home comfortably? No, they would've been immediately arrested that night and put in jail, and their bonds would've been much higher than $75,000 and $150,000 and their charge would've been attempted murder, because that's what it was," attorney Carlos Moore said. "They shot several times into that van, trying to kill Mr. Gibson, and he had done nothing wrong. He was simply Black while working."
The case contains similarities to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was gunned down while jogging in Brunswick, Georgia, in February 2020. Greg McMichael and his son Travis McMichael chased after Arbery because they suspected him of committing a series of robberies in the area. Travis McMichael fatally shot Arbery during a struggle over a firearm. They were convicted of Arbery's murder late last year and face life in prison without the possibility of parole.
