Black delivery driver loses his job at FedEx more than a year after he said white men attacked him
JACKSON, Ms. (AP) – A black FedEx delivery driver saying two white men shot and chased him in Mississippi in 2022 has now been fired from his job, he and his attorney said Monday.
“I honestly feel disrespected,” former driver D'Monterrio Gibson told The Associated Press shortly after receiving an email from FedEx about his termination.
Meredith Miller, FedEx's manager of global network communications, confirmed Monday that “Mr. Gibson is no longer employed by FedEx,” but didn't respond to other AP questions.
Last Thursday, a Mississippi judge cited police errors explain wrongdoing for the father and son accused of assault. A detective testified that he failed to give prosecutors and defense attorneys a copy of a videotaped police interview with Gibson.
Carlos Moore, an attorney who has represented Gibson in a civil suit, provided AP with a copy of an email Gibson received from FedEx Monday. It said Gibson's employment was terminated on July 26 and that the company attempted to deliver a letter and documents of the termination to him on July 31.
FedEx fired Gibson for not taking a part-time non-courier job the company offered in mid-July, Moore said, adding he didn't know if the company had given Gibson a deadline to accept.
“You can't tell me when I should be ready to come back,” Gibson said.
Gibson, 25, said he has been on work compensation leave since shortly after he reported the attack the night it occurred on Jan. 24, 2022, shortly after reporting the attack to Brookhaven, Mississippi police. which corresponds to about a third of his salary.
Gibson was not injured in the shooting or the chase, but said Monday he had undergone therapy to manage his anxiety because of the shooting. He said he still has trouble sleeping.
Brandon Case and his father Gregory Case, are charged with attempted first degree murder, conspiracy and shooting in the vehicle Gibson was driving. Prosecutors said they intend to set a new trial for the two men, who remain on bail. A court official said the judge's file was full by December.
The chase and shooting prompted social media complaints of racism in Brookhaven, about an hour's drive south of the state capital, Jackson.
The encounter happened when Gibson was making FedEx deliveries in a van with the Hertz logo on three sides. After dropping off a package at a house on a public cul-de-sac, Gregory Case used a pickup truck to try to stop the van leaving and Brandon Case came out with a gun, District Attorney Dee Bates told jurors last week.
Shots were fired as Gibson drove the van around the pickup, with three shots hitting the van and some of the packages inside, Bates said.
Gregory Case saw a rental truck with Florida plates outside his mother-in-law's vacant home after dark, defense attorney Terrell Stubbs told jurors. The older Case was about to ask the van driver what was going on, but the driver didn't stop, Stubbs said.
On August 10, a federal judge dismissed Gibson's $5 million federal lawsuit against FedEx on the grounds that the lawsuit did not prove the company discriminated against him based on his race. The lawsuit also named the city of Brookhaven, the police chief, and the cases. Moore said he plans to file a new civil lawsuit in state court, seeking $10 million.
A grand jury published a report last month saying that Brookhaven Police Department officers are “poorly investigating their cases.” The grand jury, made up of local residents, reviewed more than 60 criminal cases and wrote that the department was “complacent” and “not coming to an end.” “He conducts investigations in a timely manner,” shows a “lack of professionalism” and “has a habit of blaming witnesses.”
