White security guard fatally shot Black man ‘over loud music’ at gas station

Alvin Motley Jr was killed at a gas station in Memphis, Tennessee this past weekend

Thursday was Alvin Motley Sr’s birthday. But instead of celebrating, he was mourning the shooting death of his son by a security guard at a Memphis gas station.

Alvin Motley Jr. was riding in a car with his girlfriend when they pulled into the Kroger station on Saturday evening to fill up. The security guard said something about the volume of the music coming from the car, his girlfriend told police.

Surveillance video showed Motley, holding a beer can and lit cigarette, walking toward the white guard. “Let’s talk like men,” Motley said, according to what his girlfriend told officers.

A shot rang out, and Motley fell to the ground. The 48-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.

Gregory Livingston, a 54-year-old former police officer in Mississippi, confirmed that he had shot the man, according to a police report. He is charged with second-degree murder.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has represented the families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Michael Brown, announced Tuesday he will take on the case.

It is not yet clear what company hired Livingston and could bear the liability for his actions. Kroger and a security company the grocer uses both say Livingston was hired by third-party contractors. He was not licensed to work as a security guard in Tennessee, state records show.

Alvin Motley Sr. said he’s forgiven Livingston for shooting his son “because my Lord calls for that.” But he wants the law to be enforced to its fullest extent, he said. He wants the guard to have to think about his son’s death as long as he will.

“We’re not asking for anything except justice, whatever the rules are for justice,” he told The Washington Post.

Motley Sr. called the killing, which Crump said may have been over the volume of a Snoop Dogg song, senseless and unnecessary.

“How could this escalate to someone’s death?” asked Carl Adams, one of Motley’s cousins. “Over music?”

Motley Jr. lived in Chicago but was visiting his niece and nephew in Memphis, his family said. He was also in the area to look into opening a pop-up shop for the clothing brand he co-founded, Mac Boo Made.

At a Tuesday news conference, loved ones remembered Motley as the life of the party. His great aunt, Beverly Adams, said in an interview Motley was always ready, willing and able to do any favor. He would immediately ask “when, where and how?” she said.

“We all have a hole in our heart that cannot be repaired by any monetary award - nothing,” she said. “He was murdered in cold blood just because he chose to listen to a song, a little louder - maybe, allegedly - than what the security guard felt it should have been.”

Motley Sr. said his son, who he always called “Boo,” was “pretty much legally blind” and couldn’t see his cellphone screen unless he held it up practically to his eyebrow. He said Motley Jr. also had Marfan’s syndrome, which can weaken connective tissue. He did not drive, Motley Sr. said, and was a passenger in the car that was being refueled.

“We never ever had an argument,” Motley Sr. said. “He wasn’t violent at all.”

Crump said he keeps thinking about how the song would have ended in just a few minutes, and Motley Jr. would have moved on from the gas station.

The attorney said the case was similar to that of Jordan Davis, who was killed in 2012 after an argument over loud music at a Florida gas station.

“How many more times will we have to face these tragedies, these senseless, unnecessary, unjustifiable tragedies that leave our children in the morgue and families with holes in their hearts?” he asked Tuesday at a news conference.

Davis was the son of now-Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., who Crump said has reached out to the Motley family to offer support.

Crump implored Kroger to use its influence to “make this right” and hire security guards who don’t “don’t profile Black people and kill them for playing music.”

“If we don’t hear from you, we will be calling for people to boycott Kroger over the unjustified killing of Alvin Motley,” he said at the news conference.

No defense attorney is listed in Livingston’s online court documents. A spokesperson from the police department in Horn Lake, Miss., told Fox 13 Memphis that Livingston was employed as a police officer there from 1998 to 2001.

Mississippi state records show Livingston was certified as a law enforcement officer in July 1997 and “left law enforcement” in 2004, Mississippi Department of Public Safety official Robert Davis said in an email.

It’s unclear which company initially hired Livingston.

A large security company called Allied Universal, which contracts with Kroger, told the Commercial Appeal it didn’t hire Livingston. He was hired by one of the company’s subcontractors, a spokesperson said.

Allied Universal said it has terminated all business with the third-party contractor, though it did not name the contractor.

Kroger, in a statement, said: “We ask all third-party contractors to respect and honor our core values which include respect, diversity, and inclusion.”

Crump said that as Livingston was a representative of Kroger, the supermarket chain should take responsibility.

“The safety of your customers is a non-delegable duty,” he said.

Motley Sr. said knowing his son’s last words were an attempt to talk the situation through peacefully gives him solace.

“I want people to just know that there is not a lot of bitterness and hate in response to this situation,” he said. “We want the right thing done, and nothing more than the right thing done.”

Author: Caroline Anders