Cop Arrested in Kappa Killing

A cop, Aaron C. Smith with the Montgomery Police Department has been arrested for the murder of Greg Gunn, who was shot five times last week. Three of the shots fired from the gun of this Montgomery officer were fired into the back of Gunn while Gunn was laying on the ground.

The arrest was announced by Montgomery County, Alabama District Attorney, Daryl Bailey. Bailey said that the cop was taken into custody by the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation (SBI). Smith was placed on a $150,000 Bond. Members of the Montgomery Police Department offered monetary assistance to Smith in raising the bond amount. He bonded out within hours of his arrest and appeared at a news conference with his attorney and wife. The attorney for the cop said that the facts will show why his client fired his gun and “why Gunn is dead.”

Montgomery Chief of Police, Ernest Finley, said in a news conference on Wednesday that Smith had been on the force since 2012 and he does not believe Smith had worked for any other law enforcement agency before coming to work with the Montgomery Police Department.

Finley, is a recent addition to the Montgomery Police Department. He has spent the majority of his law enforcement career as the number two person in the Atlanta, Georgia Police Department. Finley is an African American and many community leaders credit his leadership in this investigation as a key factor in keeping the community from exploding like other cities have done where a cop killed an unarmed Black citizen.

According to Mayor Todd Strange at this same news conference, once Gunn had been pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting, the crime scene was secured and turned over to the SBI for an independent investigation.

Some members of the Montgomery area questions whether the SBI can truly be an independent investigative body in this shooting because the current Montgomery Public Safety Director, Chris Murphy previously headed up the SBI.

The Gunn family attorney has written a letter to U. S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking that the Justice Department do a separate investigation of this cop related shooting death.

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist, the author of Paper puzzle and Justice in the Round. He can be contacted at haroldmichaelharvey.com.

 

SOURCES:

http://www.wsfa.com/clip/12257916/officer-arrest-yields-reaction-from-city-family-attorney

http://www.wsfa.com/story/31367634/da-montgomery-police-officer-charged-in-death-of-gregory-gunn