The Atlanta Black Star
‘This Was Attempted Murder’: Two White Men Chased and Shot At a Black FedEx Driver While He Delivered Packages; Attorney Slams ‘Too Light’ Charges for Father-Son Duo
Nicole Duncan-Smith – February 9, 2022
A Black Federal Express driver says that he was shot at by a white man during his shift. The 24-year-old man has given pictures to the authorities of the vehicle he was using for the deliveries showing the bullet holes from the alleged shooting.
According to the Mississippi Free Press, D’Monterrio Gibson was on the clock working when two white men attacked him on Monday, Jan. 24. The men were identified as Gregory Case, father, and Brandon Case, son.
The young man works for FedEx and was delivering packages in the Jackson suburb of Brookhaven, Mississippi, around 7 p.m. when a white pickup truck drove toward the residence located close to the designated address on the drop.
Gibson recalls the events of that night, saying to the Free Press, “In my mind, I’m thinking [the driver] is leaving to go to the store or something like that, but then they get extremely close to me and start blowing their horn. I proceed to leave the driveway. As I’m leaving the driveway, he starts driving in the grass trying to cut me off.”
After assessing the situation, Gibson says his “instincts” kicked in and he swerved out of the truck’s way. Gregory Case was driving the truck.
“I start hitting the gas trying to get out of the neighborhood because I don’t know what his intentions are,” he told the outlet.
“I drive down about two or three houses. 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 shake my head 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.”
The man standing in the middle of Junior Trail with the firearm was Brandon Case, 35, WLBT reports.
The young man talked to his manager at the FedEx office once he was able to get to the end of the street and reported the incident.
“They’re shooting at you?” he said his manager asked before telling him to “head back to the station” as soon as he was able. However, as he tried to leave the area he saw the white pickup truck that tried to corner him on the grass approaching him again.
“I just went as fast as I could. He chased me all the way to the interstate,” he recounted, claiming that the truck stopped following him 10 or 15 minutes after getting on the highway.
He called the office again and spoke to a different manager, who told him the office would file a police report in the morning. Gibson did not wait. He reported the assault himself.
“I reached dispatch and let him know what was going on, and I only had a chance to get a little of the story out when he cut me off and he was like, ‘Were you at this address?’ I said yes,” Gibson said.
The dispatch told the man that they had received a call reporting that “a suspicious person” was at the address in question. Gibson says he responded, “Sir, I’m not a suspicious person, I work for FedEx. I was just doing my job.”
As Gibson continued to tell his story, he mentioned that the men shot at him, to which the dispatcher allegedly responded, “Well, they didn’t tell me that.” The dispatcher took his name down and told him that he would give it to a supervisor to continue to document his report.
After returning to the FedEx station, the first manager examined the van he was using during the day.
Gibson reported that he and the manager found, “There were bullet holes all in the back of the van, inside packages and everything like that.”
Carlos Moore of The Cochran Firm, the attorney now representing Gibson, showed photos to the outlets of the bullet holes in the truck, in packages, and one bullet on the floor of the vehicle.
Despite being a uniformed delivery driver for FedEx, a look that includes the brand’s signature color and logo, Gibson was driving a white Hertz van at the time of the shooting.
On Tuesday, Jan. 25, Gibson and one of his managers returned to Brookhaven to file a report with that city’s department.
The police report reads, “Ms. Candice Welch, said she was Mr. Gibsons boos [sic], the van had at least [sic] two bullet holes, One in the back door and one in the bumper, and three packages inside had bullet holes in them. She also had a picture of a bullet, that is still laying on van.”
Gibson alleges that even filing the report made him violated. One of the three officers that he spoke to asked him if he did “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. So I told him all I did was my job. If they think that I was suspicious, that was on them. He was like ‘OK, I was just asking,’” he expressed.
One officer took him back to the scene of the crime and looked for evidence of the shooting, but nothing was to be found.
Six days after the police report was filed, the father and son turned themselves in.
On Tuesday, Feb. 1, the father was charged with a count of conspiracy assault, and the son was charged with one count of aggravated assault. The cases were released on $75,000 and $150,000 bonds, respectively, a day later.
Moore stated to WLBT, “We believe those are too light charges. We believe this is attempted murder. They had no justification under the law to do what they did. This man had done nothing wrong, and we believe it was racially motivated.”
Gibson has alleged that the two men who assailed him are related to the Brookhaven assistant police chief, Chris Case, which is why the men were allowed to turn themselves in a week later.
Brookhaven Police Chief Kenneth Collins says that is not true, stating that Case is not connected to the investigation and was told by the officer he is not related to the father and son.
His attorney said his client plans on approaching the FBI and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations to open an official investigation, and ask the U.S. Department of Justice “to prosecute this as a hate crime.”
Moore said that his client’s experience had a striking resemblance to the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, the Black man who was chased down and killed by three white men in south Georgia in 2020.
“It’s just sad that it happens. It seems to be a copycat duo copying off the Ahmaud Arbery case,” Moore said.
“They saw this man was a Black man, and they just hauled off and shot at him multiple times, at least the younger son did. The older guy tried to entrap him. They were working concertedly to try to entrap and kill this man. I mean, they shot at him several times. It’s amazing that he survived.”
Free Press reporter Ashton Pittman wrote on Twitter that the local NAACP planned a new conference to address the Gibson attack on Saturday, Feb. 5. He alleges that the local police “expecting a protest, dispatched more than a dozen officers in gear to block off the area.” The news conference was canceled.
“Lincoln County NAACP President Rico Cain says he decided to cancel today’s press conference out of respect for the family and because Black residents in Brookhaven do not feel safe coming here to speak out about the racism they’ve experienced amid such a large police presence.”
Gibson started working for FedEx during the pandemic in July 2021. Despite the traumatic incident, FedEx did not change his delivery route. Gibson has not returned to work and is currently on unpaid time-off, stating he was “uncomfortable” and “anxious” about resuming the assignment.
He is waiting for the delivery service to find a different route for him.