Two Mississippi white men are facing relatively light criminal charges after chasing a young black FedEx deliveryman in a pickup, and then shooting at him, CNN reported on Thursday, February 10, 2022 (read story here; more details here).
D’Monterrio Gibson (photo, right), 24, was in FedEx uniform, but driving a Hertz rental van, when Gregory and Brandon Case (photo below) tried to cut off Gibson’s van with their pickup truck, and then Brandon stood in the street and fired several shots into Gibson’s vehicle. They then chased him several miles to a freeway.
The incident occurred on January 24, and Gibson went to the police the next day. A week later, Brandon Case was charged with aggravated assault and posted $150,000 bail, while Gregory Case was charged with conspiracy and released on $75,000 bond.
Gibson’s attorney believes his client was targeted “because he is African-American,” and said the attack was unprovoked. “He was simply doing his job as a FedEx driver in full uniform when he was chased and assaulted by gunfire.” He believes the charges should be upgraded to attempted murder, and wants the FBI to investigate the incident as a hate crime.
Gibson’s FedEx bosses didn’t cover themselves in glory. When he called, the dispatcher “cut him off” and told him “they had just received a report of a suspicious person.” After the incident, they put him back on the same route. He took unpaid leave two days later.
The police weren’t much better. When he and a FedEx manager went to the Brookhaven police station, they didn’t take him seriously. One cop even asked Gibson, “Did you do anything to make them think you were suspicious?” (Yeah, trying to make an honest living by delivering packages while black.) Which is strange, because Brookhaven (profile here) is a majority-black town and has a black police chief.
