The Killing of Greg Gunn

Gregory Gunn was a man who was all about one word: family. He grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, during the seventies and eighties, was one of eight siblings and was absolutely determined to make a better life for the people he cared about. He was the first in his family to graduate college and when his parents divorced and their eldest son, unfortunately, passed away from cancer, Greg was there to pick up the pieces. He took over being a father for his younger siblings, and he did it without hesitation too.

Kenneth Gunn, the youngest brother, said: “He was a guidance counselor. He guided me in the right ways of life. Big brother. Father figure.” Kenneth now owns and runs a trucking company that he attributes to his older brother. Many of the siblings, including Kenneth, went into the military right after finishing high school, and their acts of service took them all across the states and sometimes even to other countries.

And Greg hated that. “The one thing he could not stand,” Kenneth went on. “Was that we were not at home with him, and he did everything in his power to get us back to Montgomery, from college to finding work, whatever it took.”

In 2016, when Greg was then fifty-eight years old, he was living in the family home, taking care of his ailing mother and a young nephew when tragedy struck. It was February 25th, approximately 03:20 in the morning, when Greg left a neighbor’s house after playing a game of cards. He only had a few yards to go before he would make it back to his own front yard, but in that very short distance, his and his family’s lives would all be turned upside down.

Greg was spotted by local police officer Aaron Cody Smith, who then pulled his car over and ordered Greg to stop. What happened next is up for debate because Aaron Smith never started the recording devices on either his person or his dashcam, and so we’re left to piece together the scene from the remaining evidence.

According to Aaron Smith, Greg didn’t refuse to partake in a stop and frisk, but when Aaron felt something hidden in the waistband of Greg’s trousers, Greg became agitated. Greg then allegedly brushed Aaron Smith aside and made a run for it. Aaron then claimed to have first responded by trying to subdue Greg with his taser, but when that failed, Aaron pursued on foot.

When the altercation became physical, Aaron then claimed that Greg reached for a metal pole and, feeling threatened and in fear of his life, Aaron responded by grabbing his weapon and firing seven shots. Five of them hit Greg, killing him in his neighbor’s front yard and only yards away from the home where his mother and nephew were sleeping.

It turned out to be a pole for a paint roller in his waistband. It wasn’t uncommon for people in the area to carry a stick or something to protect themselves. Crime rates in the area were up.

What followed after that went just as quickly as the altercation between Greg and Aaron.

Aaron Smith was suspended with pay while an investigation ensued and the community rallied behind Greg’s legacy and his family. Greg was well-known in the area and well-liked. Hundreds of people began searching Aaron’s statements for discrepancies and gathering outside his house, determined to defend the man that they had all known and loved.

Within days, Aaron Smith was arrested and charged with murder.

He would keep quiet as he awaited trial, but he did briefly speak up to justify his actions. The area Greg had been living in with his family, and the area that Aaron was patrolling that night, had been the victim of a long string of robberies and the primary suspect was simply identified as a black male in dark clothing. Aaron believed that Greg fit that description and when Greg had allegedly brushed Aaron away during the stop and frisk, for Greg, he had sealed his own fate.

“Once you place your hands on a police officer, you go to jail. It’s simple as that,” he said, but Aaron’s trial would be anything but simple.

By then, the prosecution had what they believed happened that night and it greatly differed from Aaron’s version of events. There was no way, they argued, that Greg had reached for the metal pole that Aaron had claimed he had during the altercation. Crime scene photos showed that Greg had been holding his hat in his hands at the time that he’d been shot and, even more damning to Aaron’s case, investigators didn’t find Greg’s prints on the pole either.

Witness testimonies about Greg’s character, the evidence at the scene that contradicted Aaron’s statement and his lack of video footage of the event all stacked up against the officer, but the truth is that this case is far from black and white.

To catch just a glimpse at the underlying root of the issue, we have to look at Aaron Smith and the system that put him in that car on patrol that night, especially when we know that Aaron was only twenty-three years old at the time he shot and killed Greg Gunn.

Yes, Aaron was only twenty-three, and he was alone in his patrol car that night. Almost unbelievably, Aaron had been a police officer for years at that point. His records start back in 2012, making him only nineteen years old when he’d begun his career in law enforcement.

Twenty-three is certainly old enough to know right from wrong, but is it experienced enough to know how to handle life and death situations? Should Aaron have been on his own that night? Should any police officer, younger or older, than Aaron was?

There are those that argue that the system failed both men involved in this case.

Speaking at his hearing, Aaron, then still only twenty-five years old, said: “With how I’m being treated being in my district job, it would have been a whole lot easier to turn on my music, text my girlfriend, stay in my car and never get out of the car in the first place. I’d still be working, I’d still be on the street doing my job. But I chose to do my job at three in the morning with nobody looking over my shoulder, and I’ve been railroaded for it.”

He also went on to say that the subject of robberies in the area had been the main focus of shift meetings for months at that point, and that they had all been ordered to stop “anyone and anything that moves in that district.”

It was a compassionate plea in his own defense, but still nowhere near to the whole of the issue that underlines this case.

Only two years before that night, when Aaron Smith was only twenty-one years old, another African American Montgomery resident filed a complaint against him. This time Aaron Smith had had a senior officer with him when responding to a noise complaint, but things had still gotten out of hand.

When arriving at the scene of a house party, Aaron then ordered the homeowner to follow him down off the porch. When the homeowner followed Aaron’s instructions, Aaron responded by turning the homeowner around and handcuffing his hands behind his back.

As it turned out, one of the guests at the party was a lawyer, and both he and the senior officer with Aaron that night knew that Aaron had taken things too far by trying to arrest the homeowner over a noise complaint. The senior officer let the homeowner go, trying to smooth things over by saying that there were a lot of young officers on the force that night.

The homeowner and his lawyer friend were less than impressed and filed a complaint against Aaron, but there we have another piece of the puzzle. Clearly the officers at the Montgomery police department were aware that their younger members needed extra guidance and care, and clearly they were aware of Aaron's track record. All the more reason why Aaron shouldn’t have been alone on patrol on the night that he killed Greg Gunn.

On November 22, 2019, a jury found Aaron guilty of manslaughter instead of murder, a charge that was not as strong but was still enough to bring some level of satisfaction to Greg’s family. Speaking at the trial, his brother Franklin said: “They brought this case to a very conservative county, expecting a different outcome… But I believe that we have seen the best of Alabama today. One bad apple in a bunch has been weeded out.”

Aaron was then sentenced to fourteen years in prison.

But this is not where the case actually ends up here today. A few months ago, in February 2024, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall took over the case and removed the prosecuting lawyers. He then agreed to a plea deal with Aaron Smith that allowed Aaron to leave prison with time served, releasing him back into society.

This has been devastating to Greg’s remaining family and friends. His youngest brother Kenneth Gunn rounded up their feelings with a few simple words: “The only child my mother had who never left this city, and this city killed him.”