Officer Had Conflicting Accounts of Black Man’s Death

An agent testified on Thursday about a contradicting report from an Alabama white police officer who was charged with killing a black man.

Officer Aaron Smith, who shot Greg Gunn, 58, to death was charged with murder case in Feb. 25. Judge Jimmy Pool, who wasn’t convinced enough after the hearing, decided to involve the grand jury to revisit the case.

Smith’s attorney, Mickey McDermott had said Gunn’s appearance was suspicious at that time, so it was enough reason for his arrest. “He’s a suspect of being in a high-crime area,” McDermott said. “He’s in a high-crime area, at three o’clock in the morning, dressed in all black. Can you not draw those conclusions?”

But In two interviews, Smith told DiNunzio that Gunn ‘took to his heels’ when he wanted to conduct a search on him. In pursuit, he used his stun gun and a metal baton.  Smith initially said, there was struggle between them and he was swung with a 5 feet, 6 inches stick by Gunn. As a result, he fired shots on Gunn.

DiNunzio said that pole Smith said Gunn struck him with was almost impossible due to its size.“I did have reservations if that was even possible, due to the porch layout,” said DiNunzio, adding that is why I did a follow up interview.

Apparently, Smith in his second statement said, there was no struggle between them and that he was not sure if Gunn swung the pole at him, DiNunzio said. Gunn never picked up a fight like he said in the first statement. DiNunzio said. Smith initial approach on Gunn was wrong.

Unfortunately, McDermott tried to cover up for the evil an officer had committed, calling it a “post-traumatic stress disorder”, which led to two different statements. What about the fact that his body cam and dash cam all not turned on at that time?