The bar owner in the US state of Nebraska who was indicted for shooting dead an African American man during a George Floyd protest in May has killed himself, the New York Times newspaper reported, citing his lawyer
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st September, 2020) The bar owner in the US state of Nebraska who was indicted for shooting dead an African American man during a George Floyd protest in May has killed himself, the New York Times newspaper reported, citing his lawyer.
According to the lawyer, bar owner Jacob Gardner from the city of Omaha was expected to fly from Oregon to Nebraska to turn himself in to the authorities over the charges of manslaughter for the death of James Scurlock, a 22-year-old African American man, at the end of May.
"He [Jacob Gardner] was deathly afraid of coming back here because he felt he would not get a fair trial," lawyer Stuart J. Dornan said, as cited by the newspaper.
Gardner, 38, fired a shot during a confrontation with a group of people outside one of his bars on May 30, killing Scurlock. Initially, he did not face any charges, insisting the incident was an act of self-defense. However, following a wave of public discontent, the authorities then indicted Gardner with manslaughter.
The incident happened a few days after African American man George Floyd was suffocated to death while in police custody in the city of Minneapolis. His death caused a global wave of protests against police brutality and racial injustice and prompted the Black Lives Matter movement to mobilize.
