Share this page!

Ashton Pittman Profile picture
Twitter logo
Feb 5 • 28 tweets • 11 min read
NEW: D'Monterrio Gibson, a Black FedEx driver, says he was delivering packages in Brookhaven, Mississippi, when a white man in a pickup truck tried to block him in and another allegedly began firing bullets into his delivery truck.
mississippifreepress.org/20519/black-fe…
Gibson: "As I’m leaving the driveway, he starts driving in the grass trying to cut me off. My instincts kick in, I swerve around him, and I start hitting the grass trying to get out of the neighborhood because I don’t know what his intentions are."
mississippifreepress.org/20519/black-fe…
Gibson: “There’s another guy standing in the middle of the street pointing a gun at my windows... . I hide behind the steering wheel, and I swerve around him as well. As I swerve around him, he starts firing shots into my vehicle.”
mississippifreepress.org/20519/black-fe…
As he was trying to make his way out of Brookhaven, Gibson said, the white pickup truck chased after him.

“I just went as fast as I could. He chased me all the way to the interstate,” he said. mississippifreepress.org/20519/black-fe…
The FedEx driver called 911.

“(Dispatch) was like, 'Well I just got a call of a suspicious person at (that) address.' I was like, ‘Sir, I’m not a suspicious person, I work for FedEx. I was just doing my job.’ I also let him know that they shot at me."
mississippifreepress.org/20519/black-fe…
Once he arrived back at the FedEx station, Gibson said, his manager examined the back of the truck.

“There were bullet holes all in the back of the van, inside packages and everything like that."
mississippifreepress.org/20519/black-fe…
When Gibson reported the shooting to the Brookhaven Police, a white officer asked him if he had been “doing anything to make them think (he) looked suspicious."

"I told him all I did was my job. If they think that I was suspicious, that was on them."mississippifreepress.org/20519/black-fe…
Gibson said the police chief “tried to emphasize how unracist the town (of Brookhaven) was, which seemed odd to me.”

(Brookhaven has a history of lynching, such as the courthouse murder of civil rights activist Lamar Smith).
mississippifreepress.org/15311/lynching…
Police identified the alleged driver of the pickup truck as Gregory Case and the alleged gunman as his son, Brandon Case.

They turned themselves in on charges of conspiracy and aggravated assault, respectively. They posted bail on $75,000 & $150,000 bonds.mississippifreepress.org/20519/black-fe…
Gibson said FedEx initially put him back on the same route after the shooting, but he resisted returning to work in Brookhaven.

“I’m actually on unpaid time-off because I told them I was uncomfortable and I was very anxious about being on that route."mississippifreepress.org/20519/black-fe…
Gibson's attorney, Carlos Moore, said he plans to ask the FBI and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations to open an official investigation. He also plans to ask the U.S. Department of Justice “to prosecute this as a hate crime,” he said.mississippifreepress.org/20519/black-fe…
“They can’t take the law into their own hands,” Gibson told the Mississippi Free Press. “We’re really just tired of stuff like this happening, always looking suspicious to a certain type of people.mississippifreepress.org/20519/black-fe…
"It seems to be a copycat duo copying off the Ahmaud Arbery case. …. 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," said Gibson's attorney, Carlos Moore.mississippifreepress.org/20519/black-fe…
Moore: "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.”
mississippifreepress.org/20519/black-fe…
Gibson shared these photos with the Mississippi Free Press, which he says show some of the bullet holes in the truck he was driving and in some of the packages he was delivering. One photo shows a bullet lying on the vehicle's floor bed. photo of a bullet hole in a white vehiclephoto of a bullet hole in a bumperphoto of a bullet hole in a cardboard boxphoto of a bullet lying in the floor of the vehiclw
You can support our paywall-free, non-profit, non-partisan journalism with a one-time or recurring donation at mfp.ms/donate.

Also: Be sure to follow @MSFreePress.
This is Brandon Case (left) & his father, Gregory Case (right).

Brookhaven Police allege that Gregory Case is the man who chased the Black FedEx driver, D'Monterrio Gibson, and that the younger Case fired into Gibson's truck. Both are out on bail.

Story: mississippifreepress.org/20519/black-fe… mugshots of Brandon Case and Gregory case
You may recognize Brookhaven, Mississippi, as the hometown of U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

During her 2018 campaign, she infamously praised a supporter by saying, "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row."
jacksonfreepress.com/news/2018/nov/…
A lynching from Brookhaven's past:

"A white man named Noah Smith pulled out his pistol & shot Ditney Smith in the ribs. ... white people wouldn’t allow anyone to try to save Smith, with one of them calling out, 'Nobody carries that n****r to no hospital!'"mississippifreepress.org/15380/buried-t…
The morning after Ditney Smith's murder, the Clarion-Ledger/Jackson Daily News Sunday page 1 blamed the victim in its headlines: “Links Shooting of Negro With Vote Irregularities: DA Says Illegal Ballots Voted in the First Primary.”

Story by @DonnerKay:
mississippifreepress.org/15380/buried-t… scan of the newspaper headline
"Lincoln County Sheriff Robert E. 'Bob' Case saw local man Noah Smith leaving the courthouse covered with the Black man’s blood after the murder, he would soon say. But he didn’t stop him then."

Story by @DonnerKay: mississippifreepress.org/15380/buried-t…
"The sister of Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s husband married the grandson of Citizens Council lead propagandist Judge Brady in that southern gothic way Mississippians know well."
mississippifreepress.org/15380/buried-t…
For more on the 1955 lynching of Lamar "Ditney" Smith in Brookhaven, read Donna Ladd's thread here:
hitting the gas* not grass
The local NAACP was going to hold a press conference in Brookhaven on the D'Monterrio Gibson today, but the Brookhaven Police Department, apparently expecting a protest, dispatched more than a dozen officers in gear to block off the area.

The press conference is cancelled. photos show police officers standing in the streetphotos show police officers standing in the street
Lincoln County NAACP President Rico Cain says he decided to cancel today's press conference out of respect for the family and because Black residents in Brookhaven do not feel safe coming here to speak out about the racism they've experienced amid such a large police presence. a photo of Rico Cain with police behind him
A white man in a truck watching from a parking lot motioned me over.

Him: "Where are the protestors?"

Me: "It's a press conference. There are no protestors."

Him: "They would if they could, if the police weren't here," he said.

(I took "They" to mean "Black people"). a photo of police in Brookhaven
Clarification: The FedEx driver told me he called "dispatch." He did not say 911.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Ashton Pittman

Ashton Pittman Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @ashtonpittman

Ashton Pittman Profile picture
Feb 3
THREAD: Thousands of Mississippians will soon be able to access medical marijuana after Gov. Reeves reluctantly signed a limited bill into law despite.

But many Mississippians—including those with any mental illness other than PTSD—will be left out. 1/
mississippifreepress.org/20395/gov-reev…
Under the medical marijuana law voters approved in 2020, doctors would've had discretion to treat patients with medical marijuana for an illness if they believed it'd help.

But the Mississippi Supreme Court struck the voter-approved law down in 2021. 2/mississippifreepress.org/12703/democrac…
The more restrictive bill Mississippi lawmakers drafted that Gov. Reeves signed only allows medical marijuana treatment for 28 qualifying illnesses, though @MSDH can add others.

No personality disorders or mental illnesses other than PTSD qualify. 3/mississippifreepress.org/20395/gov-reev…
Read 10 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
Feb 3
Fantastic story on how a conservative white U of Mississippi law student who hoped to have a future in Republican politics is taking a Critical Race Theory class & calls it "the most impactful & enlightening course I have taken."

From ⁦@mintamolly⁩: mississippitoday.org/2022/02/02/mis…
"Murphree grew up seeing it; critical race theory just gave her a way to talk about it. 

At Northwest Rankin High, 'I could just look around & see people in my class, & I could see the racial divide & how people literally said the n-word,' Murphree said."
mississippitoday.org/2022/02/02/mis…
Again, this is by @mintamolly at @MSTODAYnews (no connection to the Mississippi Free Press). But it's a really great article and I wanted to share it.
Read 5 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
Feb 1
NEW: Students at historically Black colleges and universities in Mississippi spent the first day of Black History Month sheltering in place after four state HBCUs reported bomb threats.

Congressman @BennieGThompson calls it "incredibly disturbing."
mississippifreepress.org/20304/bomb-thr…
Alcorn State University, Mississippi Valley State University and Tougaloo College have all locked down their campuses following the bomb threats and switched to virtual only class instruction today.

Only the Jackson State University campus remains open.
mississippifreepress.org/20304/bomb-thr…
“The recent threats to HBCUs across the country are a shameless attempt to dampen our sense of safety and freedom by attacking locations traditionally considered a haven for all pursuing an education in a nurturing environment," said JSU's president.
mississippifreepress.org/20304/bomb-thr…
Read 13 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
Jan 29
NEW: The first Black woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court will be a "beneficiary" of affirmative action and she will "probably not get a single Republican vote," U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, said today.
mississippifreepress.org/20244/wicker-b…
“The irony is that the Supreme Court is at the very time hearing cases about this sort of affirmative racial discrimination while adding someone who is the beneficiary of this sort of quota," Sen. Wicker said of Biden's decision to appoint a Black woman.
mississippifreepress.org/20244/wicker-b…
Wicker did not raise an objection in September 2020 when then-President Trump vowed to nominate a woman to replace the late Justice Ginsburg.

Instead, Wicker enthusiastically supported Barrett and did not describe her as an affirmative action pick.
mississippifreepress.org/20244/wicker-b… CNN headline screenshot: "Trump on Supreme Court nomine
Read 19 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
Jan 28
NEW: At the Supreme Court, Mississippi's solicitor general presented a secular case for why Roe v. Wade should be overturned.

But hours later, MS Attorney General Lynn Fitch voiced different ideas.

"God selected this case," she declared. "He was ready."
mississippifreepress.org/20178/god-sele…
If Fitch is right and the U.S. Supreme Court does overturn Roe v. Wade, it will have been Donald Trump who paved the way—boosted by an army of Christian dominionists who believe they are tasked with establishing God's kingdom on earth.
mississippifreepress.org/20178/god-sele…
"Trump comes in and has the support of normal evangelical organizations like Family Research Council, but what he picks is kind of this whole interesting list of pentecostals that I used to call the D-list. He made them the A-list,” says Dr. @AntheaButler.
mississippifreepress.org/20178/god-sele…
Read 34 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
Jan 27
"...so we'll get (a) lesser Black woman."

Ilya Shapiro is the director for constitutional studies at the Cato Institute and a Federalist Society lecturer.

He is the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute. screenshot of Ilya Shapiro tweet says: "Bear pick for B
He says he apologizes for his tweet.
Correction: He used a lower case b in "Black."
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @ashtonpittman has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @ashtonpittman!

Read all threads by @ashtonpittman

:(