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Fatal police shooting stirs 40-year-old memories
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Gilliard Elementary fifth-graders tour the now-complete Airbus final assembly line hangar in Mobile. Airbus
Field trip reveals thriving Airbus plant
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Airbus Americas hosted 100 pupils from Gillard Elementary School for the last of three “Watch Me Grow” field trips at the airplane manufacturer’s new assembly line at the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley. Airbus Americas is a Partner in Education with Gilliard. The partnerships help to improve the quality of education and increase community awareness and input into local schools. During the first “Watch Me Grow” tour in 2013, the students, then third-graders, learned about construction safety, the development of the overall Airbus project, and the progress of the final assembly line hangar. They also received an up-close demonstration of excavation equipment. Thes same group of stud e n t s r e t u r n e d i n 2 0 14 during their fourth-grade year to see a partially built final assembly line hangar and to begin to learn about the engineering, design and production of aircraft.
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“Airbus is investing in the future of Mobile by educating its students as they and the Airbus facility grow ...” Michelle Huddle, director of economic and community development, Airbus Americas
This past week, the students, now fifth-graders, saw that construction is complete, and that seven aircraft are in various stages of production. “One of the goals of this program is to provide opportunities for our students so that they could develop a vision for their future,” said Debbie Bolden, principal of the Dauphin Island Parkway school. “We hope that
witnessing the construction of the facility and seeing the airplanes being assembled will inspire our students to be eager to explore the Aviation Center at B.C. Rain High School in future years, or at the very least to join the workforce in an aviation-related field.” On July 2, 2012 Airbus announced it would establish the plant in Mobile to assemble and deliver A319, A320 and A321 aircraft. It is the company’s first U.S.bas ed pro duc tion facility. The first deliveries are scheduled to occur this year. Airbus anticipates that the plant will turn out 40 to 50 aircraft per year by 2018. “Airbus is investing in the future of Mobile by educating its students as they and the Airbus facility grow in Mobile,” said Michelle Hurdle, director of economic and community development, Airbus Americas. “We need to engage with these children at an early point in their education and show them how they can be a part of an exciting industry in their own hometown.”
This is big, Mobile.
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Fo r t y ye a r s a g o, B e rnard Whitehurst was shot to death by Montgomery police officers and framed for a grocery store robbery. A detective even placed a gun by Whitehurst’s body to support the officers’ story. The subsequent cover-up by Montgomery city and police leadership is a dark spot in the history of Alabama’s capital city, and one that Whitehurst’s son, Bernard Whitehurst III, said took 37 years for the city to acknowledge and apologize for. Whitehurst doesn’t want what happened to his family Dec. 2, 1975, to happen to the family of Gregory Gunn. Gunn was, like Whitehurst, a black man. He was shot and killed by a white Montgomery police officer in the early morning hours of Feb. 25 during an apparent altercation. Six days later, the police officer, Aaron Smith, 23, was arrested and charged with murder. Comparisons of the two deadly shootings were all but inevitable. Gunn family attorney, Tyrone Means, is very familiar with the Whitehurst case, having assisted that family in a civil case against the city decades ago. And he said there are certainly similarities between the two incidents. Means said the officer in Gunn’s case used the same narrative as the officers in the Whitehurst case. He claims Gunn, 58, was unarmed, but the officer said Gunn was wielding a weapon, a paint pole lying in a neighbor’s yard. Means said the officer claimed he was patting down Gunn when the 58-year-old man ran. An autopsy shows Gunn was shot five times, possibly while crouching on the ground shielding himself, Means said. Gunn was using his arm as a shield. Gunn was only 500 feet from home when he left his neighbor’s house from playing cards on the night of the shooting, Means said. “It is a tragic case of a police officer being overzealous with the use of his weapon,” Means said. He said the swift arrest of Smith “is an indication of the strength of the evidence, and the city and county taking responsibility.” Mickey McDermott, an attorney representing Smith, says the officer is innocent and that Gunn turned violent against him. McDermott has requested a preliminary hearing in the case. “This is on the back of a 23-year-old police officer working by himself in a high-crime area,” he said in a Wednesday news conference. “We’re sorry for the loss of this man, but he brought it on himself.” The Gunn shooting has opened up old wounds for Whitehurst. “I almost broke down,” Whitehurst said, when he first heard the news. “I was working , but inside my heart — it was sad. I went
that Saturday morning to visit my dad’s grave.” Whitehurst said he was relieved to learn an arrest was made. “No one got arrested in my dad’s case,” he said. “A lot of people say (the arrest) is just an arrest, but that is a start. It shows that the city is a bit different than it was in 1975.” Whitehurst called the office of Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange following the shooting. “I wanted to make sure that justice was served,” he said. “I didn’t want anyone to go through what I went through over the last 40 years with no one getting arrested.” COVER-UP AND CONSEQUENCES
Bernard Whitehurst, 32, was shot by a police officer who believed he was the suspect in the robbery of a neighborhood grocery store on Montgomery’s west side. Whitehurst ran from police and died behind a house on Holcomb Street. He left behind a wife and four young children. Whitehurst III said he was 2 months old when his father was killed. Two of his siblings were 3 and one was 4. He said his father was the breadwinner, and his mother, Florence, was 23 and had no way to provide for herself and her family. “I was raised up with little to nothing,” he said. The initial police report claimed Whitehurst fired shots at the officers, and they returned fire. Years later — after urging from the Whitehurst family, the local newspaper and the local district attorney — investigators determined Whitehurst was unarmed and didn’t match the description of the robbery suspect. Police actually shot Whitehurst in the back and police officers planted a gun on him that had been confiscated a year before. The cover-up led to the resignation of the city ’s mayor, police chief and p u b l i c s a f e t y d i r e c t o r. Eight police officers either resigned or were fired. Three police officers were indicted on perjury charges. THE AFTERMATH
Whitehurst III said Smith, the officer arrested in Gunn’s shooting , was knowledgeable of his father’s shooting since he went through the Montgomery Police Academy in 2012. Beginning in 2011, new cadets are taught about the Whitehurst shooting and Rosa Parks arrest, and how to avoid those situations while on duty. “It is a must to study the Whitehurst case to become a police officer in Montgomery,” he said. “(Smith) knew what was right and what was wrong.” Whitehur s t hop e s to speak to the Gunn family and advise them to go to counseling to cope with the loss. “This is a very sensitive situation,” he said. “No one knows about it unless you go through it.”
