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Hate crimes are up across the country, and on January 24, an alleged hate crime nearly turned a routine package drop-off deadly.
D’Monterrio Gibson, a recent high school Mississippi graduate, had just delivered a Federal Express package in Junior Trail in Brookhaven. Gibson stated when he pulled away he was soon followed by a man honking his horn in a pickup truck. Police identified him as Gregory Case, a resident of Junior Trail.
Gibson continued, “I drive down about two or three houses, there’s another guy standing in the middle of the road pointing a gun at my vehicle, and he’s mouthing the word stop and doing like this stop.”
Gibson didn’t stop and instead drove for his life.
“I duck behind the steering wheel and I swerve around him as well, as I swerve around him he starts firing shots at the back of my vehicle.”
According to authorities, that shooter was 35-year-old Brandon Case, son of Gregory Case. The father is charged with conspiracy, while Brandon is charged with aggravated assault shooting into an occupied vehicle charge. The Cases are white.
Hate Crimes are on the rise
According to Gibson’s lawyer, Carlos Moore, “We believe those are too light charges. We believe this is attempted murder.” Moore continued, “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.”
Gibson stated the police department allowed the Cases to turn themselves in after more than a week from the shooting. Gibson also stated the incident has had a traumatic effect on him. He’s since entered therapy while on unpaid leave.
“I just want to see justice at this point,” said Gibson.
Who is protecting us?
According to WLBT, both the Mississippi and Federal Bureau of Investigations are looking into the matter. While details are short, the allegations have a strong semblance to the case of Ahmaud Arbery, who was simply jogging when a father and son attacked and murdered him two years ago.
According to the 2020 Dept. of Justice Hate Crime Statistics, over 60% of all hate crimes were based on Race/Ethnicity. There were 1,577 victims of anti-Black or African American intimidation hate crimes in the United States. A further 660 people were the victims of anti-Black or African American simple assault hate crimes in that year.
The FBI reported that 15,136 law enforcement agencies submitted incident reports involving 7,759 criminal incidents motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity in 2020. That’s the highest number of reported hate crime incidents since 2008.