A Mississippi FedEx delivery driver who is black is speaking out after he claims two white men - a father and son - shot at him during his shift in what his attorney describes as a 'copycat' attempt of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.
D'Monterrio Gibson, 24, said that he was working Monday, January 24, when the men, identified as Gregory Case and Brandon Case, allegedly attacked him.
He was delivering packages in Brookhaven, a suburb of Jackson, at around 7 p.m. that day when a white pickup truck, driven by Gregory Case, came toward the address of a scheduled drop.
Gibson alleges that Gregory Case tried to drive 'extremely close' to him and cut him off, and that as he drove away, he saw Brandon Case a few houses down in the middle of the road pointing a gun toward the driver's truck, which was a white Hertz van despite him working for FedEx.
On February 1, Brandon and Gregory Case turned themselves in. Gregory was charged with a count of conspiracy assault, while Brandon was charged with one count of aggravated assault, according to the Mississippi Free Press.
The men were released on $75,000 and $150,000 bonds, respectively, a day later.
Gibson's attorney Carlos Moore of The Cochran Firm said: 'We believe those are too light charges. We believe this is attempted murder. They had no justification under the law to do what they did. This man had done nothing wrong, and we believe it was racially motivated.'
The attorney called it a 'copycat' of what happened to Ahmaud Arbery, a black man chased down and killed by three white men while going for a run in Georgia in 2020.
The victim believes the men were allowed to turn themselves in because the Case men are related to assistant police chief Chris Case. Brookhaven Police Chief Kenneth Collins has said Chris is not related to the other two men.
D'Monterrio Gibson, 24, of Utica, Mississippi, claimed he was shot at while working for FedEx
Gibson accused Gregory Case (left) of trying to run him off the road, while son Brandon shot at him and told him to stop
'In my mind, I'm thinking [the driver] is leaving to go to the store or something like that, but then they get extremely close to me and start blowing their horn,' Gibson said. 'I proceed to leave the driveway. As I'm leaving the driveway, he starts driving in the grass trying to cut me off.'
Gibson said he then swerved out of the truck's way and was looking to try and get out of the neighborhood.
He said he then drove down a few houses and saw another man standing in the middle of the street pointing a gun at his windows, signaling and mouthing the word 'stop.'
Gibson shook his head and hid behind the steering wheel, attempting to swerve away from the man, who then allegedly began shooting at him.
The man who fired is said to be Gregory's son, 35-year-old Brandon Case.
Once he was able to get to the end of the street, Gibson reported it to his manager, who told him to get back to the station.
However, as he tried to leave, the white pickup truck that tried to corner him on the grass allegedly approached him again.
Gibson and his manager showed police footage of his delivery van with a bullet still lying on it
Gibson and his manager also showed off where they claim bullets hit the van
Junior Trail in Brookhaven is the area Gibson was when he claimed he was shot at
'I just went as fast as I could. He chased me all the way to the interstate,' Gibson said, adding that the truck only stopped following him 10 or 15 minutes after getting on the highway.
He called his FedEx office again, speaking to a different manager, who said they would file a police report, but Gibson did not want to wait and reported it himself.
When he spoke to the police dispatcher, the person who responded told him he'd received a call for 'a suspicious person' at the address in question.
Gibson then told the dispatcher he was a FedEx driver and said that the two men had shot at him. The dispatcher allegedly responded that they didn't tell him that.
When he got back to the FedEx station, his manager examined the van and found bullet holes in the back and inside packages, Gibson claimed.
Gibson said he has given pictures to police of the vehicle - a white Hertz van despite his FedEx employment - showing the bullet holes from the alleged shooting.
The next day, Gibson and a manager, Candice Welch, came back to Brookhaven to file the police report.
The report claims they found the van had at least two bullet holes and reproduced a picture of a bullet still laying in the van.
Gibson said one of the police officers asked him if he did 'anything to make them think he looked suspicious.'
'I felt disrespected at that point because even if I did, they still can't take the law into their own hand. So I told him all I did was my job. If they think that I was suspicious, that was on them. He was like ''OK, I was just asking.'''
Carlos Moore of the Cochran Firm is Gibson's attorney
Brookhaven Police Chief Kenneth Collins disputed the accusation that Gregory and Brandon were allowed to turn themselves in, saying assistant police chief Chris Case is not connected to the investigation and that he is not related to the men.
Moore said Gibson plans on approaching the FBI and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation to open an official probe and also ask the U.S. Department of Justice 'to prosecute this as a hate crime.'
Moore said that his client's experience had a striking resemblance to the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, the black man who was chased down and killed by three white men in south Georgia in 2020.
'It's just sad that it happens,' Moore said. 'They saw this man was a Black man, and they just hauled off and shot at him multiple times, at least the younger son did. The older guy tried to entrap him.
'They were working concertedly to try to entrap and kill this man. I mean, they shot at him several times. It's amazing that he survived.'
Gibson, who began working for FedEx in July 2021, said that his delivery route has not been changed. He has yet to return to work and is currently on unpaid time off, saying he's 'uncomfortable' and 'anxious' about returning.
He wants FedEx to find a different route for him.
'The safety of our team members is our top priority, and we're shocked by this reported criminal act against our employee,' a spokesman told DailyMail.com in an email. 'We remain focused on the wellbeing of our team member and are awaiting more information from investigating authorities.'
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