White Alabama cop charged with murder fatally shot former officer's black son

A white police officer in Alabama was charged with murder Wednesdy after the fatal shooting an African American man that activists say is the latest case of racially-charged police brutality in the US.

Comparisons have been drawn between the case and the death of Trayvon Martin, who was fatally shot by volunteer neighborhood watch officer George Zimmerman in 2012.

"Every time I turn around and turn on the TV, a police officer is shooting someone", Shy said. "If it can't be done, then well done and well good".

On Feb. 25, Smith shot and killed 58-year-old Gunn in front of a neighbor's house as he was walking home, the Associated Press reported.

"I know he was racially profiled", Gunn's younger brother Franklin told The Washington Post.

"He was black at three in the morning", he said. Authorities have not said what Smith found suspicious about Gunn.

The Gunn family and supporters respond and pray after District Attorney Daryl Bailey announced on Wednesday March 2, 2016 that MPD Officer Aaron "AC" Smith was arrested in connection to the Greg Gunn shooting.

The prosecutor pointed out that the 23-year-old Smith remains innocent until proven guilty. The case now goes to a grand jury, he said. But city officials on Wednesday afternoon appeared to back away from their initial assertions that Mr. Gunn, whose father was among the city's first black police officers, had been carrying a stick or another object that could have been perceived as a weapon. "Right is right, and wrong is wrong".

The Gunn family's attorney Tyrone Means said Gun was walking home from a friend's house at the time.

Along the way, police - apparently thinking Gunn was suspicious - approached him on foot. Hinson heard Gunn pounding on his front door, screaming for help and calling out for his mother...several shots were fired.

Investigators would not discuss what led them to file the murder charge against the officer, Aaron Smith. "We're sorry for the loss of this man, but he brought it on himself".

Speaking after Wednesday's arrest, Finley said Smith is on administrative leave and authorities have started the process to fire him. Police, working with the State Bureau of Investigation, said there was enough probable cause to arrest Smith, but declined to elaborate. Finley said it was possible. "And (it's important to know) the truth, and really dealing with the truth, and dealing with the community to let the community know that we stand for righteousness and correctness in all that we do".

Mayor Todd Strange said Montgomery values its law enforcement officers but has changed in the decades since it seemed like a hotbed of police violence.

Smith has been charged but not officially indicted, as the investigation is ongoing. "We still say that today".

"99.9% of the Montgomery police officers do an exceptional job on a daily basis protecting us in our community", Bailey said, encouraging people to support rather than shun officers.

"We said from the outset that we would follow the facts where they led us", he said Wednesday.

The family expressed appreciation for authorities' efforts, as did neighbors like Colvin Hinson. "... I respect the police".

"She can't be happy, because she lost a son", Means said.

"I have no reason to believe the (ADF) would be erroneous in their conclusion", Lauridson said.