ATLANTA — A white police officer in Montgomery, Alabama, has been charged with murder in the shooting death last week of Gregory Gunn, a 58-year-old black man, officials said Wednesday.
Investigators would not discuss what led them to file the murder charge against the officer, Aaron Smith. But city officials Wednesday afternoon appeared to back away from their initial assertions that 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.
"In the history of Montgomery, this is not one of our great days," said Mayor Todd Strange. He said that the city would seek to fire Smith, 23, who has been on the force in Montgomery, the Alabama capital, since 2012.
The state has been investigating the Feb. 25 shooting, and Strange said: "We trusted the process last Thursday. We trust the process today. And we will trust the process in the future."
A lawyer for Smith, Mickey McDermott, criticized the arrest as "political" and said he believed the authorities charged the officer in an effort to prevent civil unrest.
"They have a duty to protect the public from itself sometimes," McDermott said. "They, I believe, thought this would be the mechanism to show the public that they are trying to be honest and fair to both sides."
The announcement of Smith's arrest came only six days after his fatal encounter with Gunn, who worked in a grocery. Montgomery officials initially said that Smith had stopped Gunn, who was walking home after a late night of work and playing cards, believing him to be suspicious. It was after 3 a.m., and the two became involved in a struggle. At some point, officials said, Smith opened fire.
McDermott asserted Wednesday that Smith had used "appropriate deadly force to protect himself and this community" and that Gunn had "lost his life due to his own conduct."
Gunn's death has resonated sharply in Montgomery, a predominantly black city with a history of mistrust between the local authorities and residents. Strange, who is white, and the city's police chief, Ernest N. Finley Jr., who is black, were among the officials who sought to ease frustrations after the shooting and were sometimes rebuffed.
On Tuesday, the Montgomery Advertiser reported, demonstrators repeatedly interrupted a City Council meeting. Although the investigation is continuing, officials said, the authorities decided by Wednesday afternoon to pursue a case against Smith; a grand jury will now consider an indictment,
"As district attorney, I will do everything in my power to protect a police officer who is operating within the law," Daryl D. Bailey, the Montgomery County district attorney, said in announcing the murder charge at a news conference. "I will also use every ounce of my power to prosecute a police officer who is acting outside of the law."
Bailey said that the murder charge did not represent "an indictment on the Montgomery Police Department" and added that Smith's bond had been set at $150,000. The officer was released Wednesday.
Like McDermott, a lawyer for Gunn's family, Tyrone C. Means, said Wednesday that the swirling issue of police conduct in the United States had probably contributed to the decision to charge Smith so quickly.
"I think it's a combination of not only the evidence but also the general debate about the use of deadly force nationwide, the general debate about the use of deadly force with regard to unarmed black men," Means said.
Means said he discussed the legal process with Gunn's mother Wednesday. And although he described the charge against Smith as "a positive step forward," he said members of Gunn's family, particularly his mother, with whom Gunn lived, would likely find limited comfort in the news.
"She can't be happy, because she lost a son," Means said. "She's happy that there appears to be some responsibility that's being manifested, but that's not the whole deal."