BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (WJTV) – A police dispatcher and a detective testified Wednesday, August 16 in the trial of two white men in Brookhaven who are accused of chasing and shooting at a Black FedEx driver who had dropped off a package at a home.

Gregory and Brandon Case sat quietly in the courtroom as witnesses testified about what happened on January 24, 2022.

The father-on duo allegedly fired shots at D’Monterrio Gibson while he was delivering a package on Junior Trail in Brookhaven. Gibson, who was 24 at the time, was not injured.

District Attorney Dee Bates told the majority-white jury in his opening statement Tuesday that Gibson made deliveries for FedEx on Jan. 24, 2022, while driving a rental van with the Hertz logo on three sides. Gibson dropped off a package at a home on a dead-end road, Bates said. Gregory Case then used a pickup truck to try to block the van from leaving, and Brandon Case came outside with a gun, the prosecutor said.

As Gibson drove the van around the pickup truck, “shots are fired,” Bates said, with three rounds hitting the delivery van.

Attorneys for the defendants argued that Gregory Case called the Brookhaven Police Department before the incident and reported a trespasser on his property. Gregory Case claimed they followed Gibson to obtain a tag number.

The first witness Wednesday was a police dispatcher who said Gregory Case called first to report he had seen a suspicious vehicle near his home, and that the van almost ran over him. Audio of the call was played in court, with Case saying he wanted to know who owns the van and saying he thought the driver was up to “something that wasn’t good.”

The same dispatcher then testified that Gibson also called to report that someone shot at the van while he was delivering a package.

Vincent Fernando, a Brookhaven Police Department detective, testified that cellphone records showed calls between Gregory Case’s phone and Brandon Case’s phone on the evening of the father and son’s encounter with Gibson. Those calls were made before Gregory Case and Gibson placed separate calls to the police department.

Fernando also testified that security camera video from a truck stop showed a white van being followed by a pickup truck before the police were called.

Gibson’s attorney, Carlos Moore, compared the episode to the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was running empty-handed through a Georgia subdivision in 2020 when three white men — a father, son and neighbor — chased him down and blasted him with a shotgun.

During a news conference days after the confrontation, Gibson said he was wearing a FedEx uniform and driving the van FedEx had rented for his deliveries when he dropped off a package at a house. He said the driver of a pickup truck tried to cut him off as he left the driveway.

Moore said Gibson is still employed by FedEx and is out on workers’ compensation leave. A judge dismissed Gibson’s federal lawsuit seeking $5 million from FedEx last week, writing that it failed to prove the company discriminated against him because of his race. That litigation also named the city of Brookhaven, the police chief and the Cases, and Moore said he plans to file a new civil suit in state court.

Outside the court on Tuesday, Moore said: “The family is cautiously optimistic that they’ll get justice here in Lincoln County.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.