MONTGOMERY , Ala., March 3 (UPI) — A Montgomery police officer was arrested in the shooting death of a 58-year-old unarmed black man as he was walking through a high-crime neighborhood, authorities said.
Officer Aaron “AC” Smith, 23, was arrested on a charge of murder and was released from the Montgomery County jail on a $150,000 bond. Police, working with the State Bureau of Investigation, said there was enough probable cause to arrest Smith, but declined to elaborate.
Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey said Smith’s arrest “is in no way an indictment against the Montgomery Police Department,” saying, “99.9 percent of the officers at the Montgomery Police Department do an exceptional job on a daily basis.”
Gunn was shot several times about 3:20 a.m. Feb. 25 while walking in the west Montgomery neighborhood of Mobile Heights, described by police as a high-crime area. Investigators said Smith stopped Gunn because he seemed suspicious and an altercation allegedly began. Police initially said Gunn was armed with a stick or a pole, but those details have now come into question. Gunn was shot multiple times.
Smith’s attorney, Mickey McDermott, said the arrest was a “publicity move” and an effort to head off planned protests of the shooting like those held in recent years over the deaths of other unarmed black men in police-involved altercations throughout the nation.
“We’ve had protests all over the city — there are people outside of my building protesting right now,” McDermott said.
“They have sold out a good officer — a second-generation officer whose parents were both in MPD. He was doing his job when a tragedy occurred, but Officer Smith followed protocol and followed his training.”
