Crime & Justice
Black delivery worker says two white men chased and shot at him in Mississippi
FedEx worker D’Monterrio Gibson said he was chased and shot at by two white men while doing his job.
FedEx worker D’Monterrio Gibson said he was chased and shot at by two white men while doing his job.
He said he believes the father son duo pursued him because he is Black and because they thought he didn’t belong in their neighborhood.
D’Monterrio Gibson chased and shot at while doing his job
According to Gibson, he was delivering a FedEx package in Brookhaven, a predominately white neighborhood about 55 miles south of Jackson, Mississippi on January 24 when his van was cut off by a pickup truck as he was pulling out of a driveway.
Gibson told reporters that he was driving a Hertz van with the logo on it due to FedEx truck shortages.
He swerved around the vehicle, then encountered a man in the street pointing a gun at him and gesturing for him to pull over.
Gibson ducked behind the steering wheel as the man opened fire, he said. Bullets damaged the van and packages inside but no one was hurt in the shooting.
After the incident he immediately called his supervisor who told him to come back to the office. They went to the police station and attempted to put in a police report. They had to return in the morning but this time Gibson was with a new supervisor.
In an interview with Roland Martin, Gibson and his attorney Carlos Moore said the Brookhaven Police Department were initially dismissive and it took several attempts for police to record Gibson’s story accurately.
He said it appeared that the officers were attempting to downplay the details of his statement. One officer said he was going to play devil’s advocate. The officer asked if Gibson had done something to make the men think that he was suspicious.
“I replied, ‘No sir, I was just doing my job. If they thought I was suspicious, then that’s on them’,” Gibson says, “That was like disrespectful to me, because it’s like victim shaming.”
Gibson, who said he felt certain he could handle things and carry on, went back to work. But, he was put back on the same delivery route. Within days, he found himself in Brookhaven again to deliver a package. Gibson had what he described as a panic attack.
His bosses said they would put him on a different route. Instead, they gave him leave without pay and he has been sitting at home since.
Moore told Roland Martin that Gibson just recently received retroactive pay. In a statement to TIME Magazine, FedEx said they take the matter seriously and would cover the cost of counseling for Gibson, guarantee his job for 90 days, offer three additional weeks of paid time off, and do a reevaluation thereafter.
Similar to Ahmaud Arbery
Gibson has compared his case to that of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was murdered while jogging.
“I feel it’s my responsibility to speak up, because [Arbery] didn’t survive to speak up for himself,” he told CNN.
The case is strikingly similar to Ahmaud Arbery, who was chased in February 2020 while jogging in Satille Shores, GA, also a predominately white neighborhood.
Father and son, Gregory and Travis McMichael, said they pursued Arbery due to previous incidents of him being seen in an empty house being renovated.
The McMichael’s and an accomplice, William Roddie Bryan, chased and cornered Arbery. Travis McMichael got into a scuffle with Arbery and fatally shot him.
All three were charged with murder and were found guilty. The McMichael’s were sentenced to life in prison without parole. Bryan was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Racism in Mississippi
Historically, Mississippi ranks among the states with the largest number of lynchings, according to an analysis of racial violence by the Equal Justice Initiative. It is also the state where Emmett Till was kidnapped and lynched. The men who later admitted to his murder were acquitted by an all white jury and the woman who accused Till allegedly recanted her story.
And Brookhaven has its own history of racism and racial violence. In the 1950s, Lamar Smith – a Black civil rights activist, – was gunned down by a white man on the front lawn of the Lincoln County Courthouse in Brookhaven. No arrests were made and no convictions followed. In 2016, the Department of Justice closed the cold case.
Two Charged for shooting at D’Monterrio Gibson
Brandon Case, 35, has been charged with felonious aggravated assault for shooting into a moving vehicle. Gregory Case, 58, is charged with conspiracy for allegedly helping his son.
Gibson believes the charges are too lenient and is asking the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation to take the case from local police and for the men to face federal hate crime charges.
Carlos Moore told TIME Magazine that federal prosecutors have taken an interest in the case and was told by Brookhaven Police that the FBI collected materials related to the case.
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Crime & Justice
Ballot boxes in multiple states set on fire
Local authorities said hundreds of ballots were affected.
An investigation is underway after at least two ballot boxes were set on fire Monday morning in Oregon and Washington state.
Local authorities said hundreds of ballots were affected.
Ballot boxes on set on fire
Police responded to a call about a fire in Portland about 3:30 a.m. Monday, the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement. An “incendiary device” was placed inside the box and security personnel extinguished the fire, officials said.
A second ballot box minutes away from the first was set on fire early Monday morning at a bus station in nearby Vancouver, Washington, according to the Vancouver Police Department. When officers arrived, they found a “suspicious device” next to the box, which was smoking and on fire, police said.
The box in Vancouver is in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, where one of the most competitive races in the country is taking place.
Other locations
Other fires affecting ballots have been recently reported across the country.
Last week, a mailbox outside a Phoenix post office was set on fire, damaging an unknown number of ballots. A 35-year-old man was charged with arson in that incident. The Phoenix Police Department said he told them it was not politically motivated.
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Unheard Voices Magazine is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.
Crime & Justice
GoFundMe started after pastor’s near-death experience
Glenn Germany was giving a sermon at a Pennsylvania church in May when a man tried to shoot him.
Glenn Germany was giving a sermon at a Pennsylvania church in May when a man tried to shoot him.
The gun jammed and a congregation member and the pastor were able to disarm the suspected shooter. Because of that terrifying incident, Pastor Glenn Germany has started a GoFundMe to make improvements to church security.
Pastor Glenn Germany near-death experience
“After this experience, just about everything changed about mine and my family’s life overnight. I went from already being a busy man with 3 jobs to suddenly having even more on my plate – interviews, investigations, conferences, community repair, increased security measures – but nothing was removed from my plate,” the GoFundMe reads.
Seeking help
Germany is the pastor of Jesus Dwelling Place, a small church in East Pittsburgh located in a low income community. The congregation consists of about 70 people, around 15 children, 10 teenagers and 45 adults.
At the church, Germany wears many hats, from cutting grass, to plumbing, to preaching, to bookkeeping to engineering, even their live-streaming is done from his phone.
In addition to religious services, the church provides its primarily low and fixed-income congregants with housing advice, domestic violence and mental health awareness programs, and seminars on everything from improving health to credit scores.
To keep the church afloat, Germany and his family give more than $1,000 out of pocket every month. And now he is seeking support to keep the church safe.
“Since May 5th 2024, when that young man came into our church, from that day I had to put on a couple more hats. Prior to that day we did make my brother Pastor Gary Germany the Senior Pastor in order to take some things off my plate. But because of that incident my life has now taken on many new challenges in which I now seek support.”
To donate to the church, visit the GoFundMe.
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Crime & Justice
New Jersey detective shot and killed after suspects kicked in front door of her home
Monica Mosley, a revered detective in South New Jersey, was shot and killed during a home invasion at her residence, authorities said.
Monica Mosley, a revered detective in South New Jersey, was shot and killed during a home invasion at her residence, authorities said.
New Jersey detective Monica Mosley killed
Detective Sgt. Monica Mosley, with the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office, was fatally shot at her home in Bridgeton on Tuesday night, according to police.
The incident
Bridgeton Police responded to the home around 10:30 p.m. for a report of “several subjects kicking in a front door at a residence,” the Bridgeton Police Department said in a press release.
Mosley, 51, died at the scene, police said.
An individual who had been treated for a gunshot wound at a nearby hospital was detained for questioning in connection with the incident, police said. No additional information on the individual was released.
Law enforcement career
Mosley began her career in 2006 at the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office as a paralegal specialist. She then became a county detective in 2009, “where she served our community with honor, dignity and respect before her untimely passing,” Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae said in a statement.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy expressed he was “outraged and heartbroken by the murder” of Mosley.
“As a detective with the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office, Sgt. Mosley served her community with distinction, working every day to ensure the safety and well-being of the people of Cumberland County,” he said in a statement. “This act of violence impacts our entire law enforcement community and all of New Jersey.”
No arrests have been made or charges filed in the case, police said.
Multiple agencies are investigating the deadly shooting, including the State Police Major Crime Bureau, the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office and the Bridgeton Police Department Criminal Investigation Bureau.
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Unheard Voices Magazine is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.
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