A Black man was gunned down by a White security guard in Memphis, after the victim was exercising his basic right “to pump gas and play his music,” his family said, reports NBC News.
Alvin Motley Jr., 48, was filling up Saturday at a Kroger Fuel Center at 6660 Poplar Ave., when he got into a dispute with a security guard, Memphis police said.
The disagreement was over loud music being played by the victim, his family said, and ended with security guard Gregory Livingston, 54, allegedly shooting Motley in the chest.
Motley was pronounced dead at the scene and Livingston was booked into custody, on suspicion of second-degree murder, Memphis police said.
Livingston was still in custody on Friday, held in lieu of $1.8 million bail, Shelby County Jail records showed. His next court date is set for today (August 16).
Motley was a 48-year-old Chicago resident visiting family in Tennessee when he was shot, his family said.
“Alvin Motley has a right to exist, to pump gas and play his music because this is America and nobody has the right to kill a young Black man for playing music,” family attorney Ben Crump said. “I don’t care how loud you think it is. You do not have a right to kill a young Black man for playing music.”
Under ordinary circumstances, the case would be tried by Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich, but she announced Thursday that her office has a potential conflict of interest and will send the matter to a special prosecutor.
An investigator with the office moonlights for Allied Universal Security, the company hired by Kroger to provide guards for the store, and that DA employee could end up being a witness in this case, according to Weirich.
“Today I learned an investigator in this office had an off-duty job with Allied Security and might be a witness in the prosecution of Gregory Livingston. The investigator has been put on leave without pay for failing to notify me of this immediately,” according to a statement released by Weirich.
