A white father and son in Mississippi are facing attempted murder charges after they allegedly chased and shot at a Black FedEx driver.
According to the Clarion Ledger, Brandon Case and his son Gregory Case were indicted by a grand jury on Friday, about nine months after they were initially arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault. Authorities say the incident took place on Jan. 24, when 24-year-old D’Monterrio Gibson finished dropping off a package at a Brookhaven home. Gibson told police he was wearing his uniform and driving an unmarked vehicle when he noticed a white pickup truck pulling away from a nearby house.
The FedEx worker claimed the person driving the pickup began honking and attempted to cut him off. Gibson said he swerved his vehicle—a rental van from Hertz—and attempted to get out of the neighborhood as fast as possible. But just several houses down the road, he came face to face with a different man pointing a gun.
“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,’” Gibson recalled, as reported by Law & Crime. “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.”
Prosecutors said the father and son chased Gibson all the way to Interstate 55. The Clarion Ledger reports Gibson was not physically harmed; however, the van and multiple FedEx packages were damaged in the incident.
Gibson said as soon as the pursuit ended, he immediately called 911 to report the incident. The dispatcher allegedly asked Gibson if he been on Junior Trail. The man responded in the affirmative, and was reportedly informed that someone had reported seeing a suspicious person in the neighborhood. The dispatcher then told to file a police report the next day.
Brandon and Gregory Case turned themselves in on Feb. 1. They were released shortly after on $75,000 and $150,000 bonds, respectively. They were re-arrested last week on multiple charges, including first-degree attempted murder, conspiracy to commit the crime of murder, and shooting into a motor vehicle. The charges have since been upgraded from conspiracy to aggravated assault.
Gibson’s attorney Carlos Moore compared the attack to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was shot and killed by a white father and son in Georgia. The lawyer believes the incident was racially motivated and is calling for a federal hate crime investigation.
