National Digest: White former Alabama police officer sentenced to 14 years in killing of black man

Publish date: 2024-07-29

ALABAMA

Officer sentenced for killing black man

A white former Alabama police officer who killed an unarmed black man in 2016 was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in prison.

A judge handed down the sentence to former Montgomery police officer Aaron Cody Smith, news outlets reported. Smith was found guilty of manslaughter by a jury in November for the 2016 shooting death of Gregory Gunn, 58.

Smith shot and killed Gunn after he fled from a stop-and-frisk. The defense maintained that Smith fired in self-defense because Gunn was grabbing a painter’s pole from a porch, but prosecutors said Gunn was never a threat. Gunn was walking home when he was stopped by Smith and died not far from his house.

During the sentencing hearing, Gunn’s brother and sister described how Gunn stepped up and took care of their family after their father’s death.

Also during the hearing, Smith told the Gunn family he was sorry and that it wasn’t his intent to kill.

Prosecutors had initially charged Smith with murder. Jurors returned the guilty verdict on the lesser charge of manslaughter.

The trial was moved from Montgomery to Ozark, about 85 miles away, because of publicity. Smith resigned from the police department following the guilty verdict.

— Associated Press

ALASKA

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Man gets 119 years for killing police officer

A man convicted of killing a Fairbanks, Alaska, police officer in 2016 has been sentenced to 119 years in prison.

Superior Court Judge Michael McConahy on Tuesday sentenced Anthony Jenkins-Alexie, 32, for the shooting death of Sgt. Allen Brandt, an 11-year veteran of the Fairbanks Police Department, Fairbanks television station KTVF reported.

The shooting occurred as Brandt responded in his patrol car to calls of shots fired and a man yelling in a neighborhood east of downtown Fairbanks.

Brandt’s dashboard camera recorded him driving slowly as Jenkins-Alexie approached on the sidewalk. As the patrol car stopped, Jenkins-Alexie moved his right hand toward his coat pocket but remained out of the picture. Seconds later, gripping a silver handgun with both hands, Jenkins-Alexie ran around the front of the car and started shooting, the video shows.

Brandt opened the driver’s door and took cover but was hit. He fired back but fell. He was struck six times: twice in the right leg, once in the left leg and once in the right foot. One shot grazed his right knee. Body armor stopped a shot to the chest, but at least two bullet fragments entered his right eye.

As Brandt lay on the ground, prosecutors said, Jenkins-Alexie approached and took the officer’s gun from his hand and stomped on Brandt’s head.

Police arrested Jenkins-Alexie a few days after the shooting. When police searched his home, they found a confession written on notebook paper in which he referenced a previous police shooting of a close friend.

Brandt had been expected to recover from his wounds and he appeared at a city council meeting. However, in follow-up surgery, Brandt died of complications from the attack.

Jenkins-Alexie was convicted in April of first-degree murder. The jury made a special finding that he had killed a uniformed police officer, which carries a mandatory 99-year sentence.