Black FedEx Driver Says He Was Chased And Shot At By Two White Men

Being chased and shot at while doing anything is terrifying, especially if you're being chased and shot at because of the color of your skin, while just doing your job. A FedEx driver in Mississippi says he experienced just that as he was chased and shot at by two white men while making deliveries, NBC News reports.

D'Monterrio Gibson says that on January 24 around 7 p.m. he was making deliveries in the city of Brookhaven. While Gibson was wearing his FedEx uniform, he wasn't in a FedEx vehicle. Instead, he was in a van rented from Hertz to make deliveries, something that's not unheard of given the current delivery van shortage.

After dropping some packages off on a street called Junior Trail, he noticed a white pickup had been following him. That's when he saw a man was standing in the road ahead. With a gun. From NBC News:

After the drop-off, a man in a white pickup truck began following him closely while honking his horn, Gibson said. He drove past a couple of houses and encountered a man standing in the middle of the road with a gun pointed at him, he said. The man was mouthing the word "stop," Gibson said.

He swerved to avoid hitting the man in the road, who then opened fire at the van, hitting the back of it multiple times. Calling his manager, he was told to return to the hub. Gibson says the pickup followed onto the interstate for 10 to 15 minutes before giving up.

After getting away from the pickup, Gibson immediately called the cops to make a report. Interestingly, the dispatcher knew he had been making deliveries on Junior Trail:

He eventually was able to get away from the pickup truck and called police to report what happened. He said a dispatcher interrupted him and asked whether he had been on Junior Trail.

"I said, 'Yes,'" Gibson said. "He was like, 'Well, I just got a call of a suspicious person at this address.'"

How someone thought that a person was suspicious in a FedEx uniform while placing packages at people's homes escapes me... wait, no it doesn't. This was a Black man doing his job in Mississippi. He would've gotten harassed even if he was sitting on a porch minding his business. He had to tell the police dispatch that he was in fact not a suspicious person and that he was just doing his job. Dispatch told him that's not the report they received and that he needed to go to the station to make an official report.

Gibson and his manager filed the report with local police the next day. Multiple bullet holes were found in the back of the van. A couple of bullets even hit some of the packages.

The suspects, a father and son by the name of Gregory and Brandon Case, turned themselves in on February 1. They were charged with conspiracy and aggravated assault. Gibson says he was traumatized from the event and plans to speak to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation about what happened. From the Mississippi Free Press:

They can't take the law into their own hands. We're really just tired of stuff like this happening, always looking suspicious to a certain type of people.