Our Story: The Muted Truth

                                                             FROM THE WIFE OF

                                 FORMER POLICE OFFICER AARON CODY SMITH

To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Ashley Smith. I am the wife of Former Police Officer Aaron Cody Smith. I am writing you this letter in order to give family, friends, and the public some insight from the muted side of the tragic, on-duty officer involved shooting that took place on February 25, 2016 at around 3AM in Montgomery, Alabama. This day changed the course of our lives, the citizens of Montgomery's lives, another family's lives, and fellow officers' lives across not only our state but across our country.

I preface this letter by saying, I have prayed over this letter and how I would address everything without writing an entire book. I want everyone to know that I fully know the gravity of the loss of Greg Gunn’s life, as does my husband.

In no way do we want this to be misinterpreted as disrespectful or that we are minimizing the weight of that loss.

Bear with me as I try to put my heart on paper.

My husband, Aaron Cody Smith, is a good man, a loving husband, a dedicated father, a devout Christian, and was an outstanding law enforcement officer. He loved being a police officer and misses doing it every day. He was an officer at Montgomery Police Department for several years before this incident and has a multitude of awards in his honor for his exemplary service to the City of Montgomery.

If I could give you eyes to see directly into his heart and show you the person he is, I would. I know a different picture of him has been painted by the media and the prosecution to make him appear that he was just a "hot headed” cop who was a "bad apple” in the department and justice is removing him from freedom; but this is far from an accurate depiction of my husband and the type of officer that he was.

In the months leading up to the 2016 shooting, an area known as Mobile Heights in Montgomery, AL had approximately 30 break-ins in one specific neighborhood. There was a request for increased police presence in this particular community. Cody was moved from his normally assigned district of Cloverdale to the Mobile Heights district due to his proactive policing and reputation of catching burglary suspects swiftly in his assigned district.

All of the officers on duty that night were ordered by superiors to "stop anything that moved” within this district, this was verified in trial by testimony of his superior officer at the time of the incident.

In the early morning hours of February 25, 2016, Cody was patrolling his assigned neighborhood, Mobile Heights, when he noticed Mr.Gunn walking through the neighborhood. He made contact with Mr. Gunn, as was asked of him by his superiors.

The initial encounter was cordial, but while frisking him for weapons, Mr. Gunn became antsy and Cody called for backup because he could tell Mr. Gunn’s mood had shifted. Mr. Gunn shoved free and fled.

Cody immediately notified again that he was in pursuit and began to pursue Mr. Gunn on foot. No superior officer ordered Cody not to pursue or to stop pursuing the suspect. Mr. Gunn gave no indication of why he would have fled so the risk to the safety of others was undetermined as the frisk was not complete.

While chasing Mr. Gunn, Cody called out to him multiple times, telling him to stop.

At one point they met again and Cody attempted to detain the suspect using non-lethal methods. Cody deployed his taser multiple times and used his baton. Mr. Gunn ultimately ended up running onto a porch and arming himself with a steel enforced extended paint pole .

At this point, Mr. Gunn had armed himself with a weapon capable of incapacitating an officer and was holding it in an offensive position. This gave Cody no choice but to make the split second decision to use lethal force to defend himself from becoming incapacitated and losing his weapon, risking the public or his own life. He chose to use lethal force. Mr. Gunn subsequently died of his injuries.

Cody was forced by department administrators to give a statement within just a few hours of the shooting. Since this incident, Montgomery Police Department has made policy changes within the department to allot time for the officers to process the trauma before having to sit down with investigators to make statements.

The District Attorney has made it his objective to say that Cody has changed his story, but the key facts of his case have never changed. Cody was nothing but transparent from the beginning and the fundamental aspects of his story stayed the same.

Mainly, that the suspect armed himself with an incapacitating weapon to be used against an officer, so lethal force was utilized.

After the shooting, Cody was initially told by investigators in this case that it was a "clean shoot” that would be "open and closed” without a problem.

This in fact did not turn out to be the case because, in my opinion the District Attorney, Daryl Bailey, saw an opportunity to try and manipulate this case to fit a racial agenda and capitalize politically. It didn't seem to be relevant that Mr. Gunn had a history of being violent with law enforcement officers in Montgomery, had stimulating drugs in his system, drug paraphernalia on his person, and armed himself with an incapacitating weapon. None of these things were enough to keep Daryl Bailey from having one of our law enforcement officers arrested and charged with murder.

One of the District Attorney's biggest arguments is that Cody had no right to stop Mr. Gunn. This is not accurate. It is my understanding, as laid out by the courts under Terry vs. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 the law gives an officer the right to stop and frisk for weapons in high crime areas.

If Mr. Gunn would have remained compliant like he was in the beginning of the encounter and was found not to have any weapons on his person, the drug paraphernalia that was later found would have been the only issue at hand; Cody could have used officer discretion to arrest or let him go, and if arrested, Mr. Gunn could have had the chance in court to argue his rights related to the stop and frisk.

Even though the law defends the stop and frisk, this was not the cause of the shooting. Evading police was not the cause of the shooting. My husband is well aware that although it is illegal to evade police, evading police is not a reason to use lethal force. Mr. Gunn had the opportunity to comply and be arrested and have his day in court.

Resisting arrest was not the cause of the shooting. Cody used nonlethal force when in contact with the suspect to try and detain him and was unable to, but was still aware this was not a reason to use lethal force.

Mr. Gunn also had a chance here to stop, comply, and have his day in court, but that was not the decision Mr. Gunn made. Mr. Gunn decided to run onto the porch, grab an incapacitating weapon, and attempt to utilize it against a police officer.

This is what caused the shooting.

This is grounds and means for lethal force both by departmental policy and by state law, 13A-3-23(a)(1), which reads:

"(a) A person is justified in using physical force upon another person in order to defend himself or herself or a third person from what he or she reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of unlawful physical force by that other person,

and he or she may use a degree of force which he or she reasonably believes to be necessary for the purpose. A person may use deadly physical force, and is legally presumed to be justified in using deadly physical force in self-defense or the defense of another person pursuant to subdivision (5), if the person reasonably believes that another person is:

(1) Using or about to use unlawful deadly physical force.”

My Husband used all his training by the Montgomery Police Department as was expected to do by the citizens of Montgomery and his superior officers. He called for backup, signaled a foot pursuit by radio, used escalating force as laid out by the department's policy at the time, in attempt to detain Mr. Gunn.

He did not use lethal force until an incapacitating weapon was introduced, and called for medics after such force was applied.

Daryl Bailey has said that Cody views this tragic loss as another "notch in his belt”  which is honestly an insult to Mr. Gunn's family, my family, and my husband.

He has implied Cody has his head held high, while Cody has struggled to keep his head up at all except for the Lord. Cody still struggles and will struggle with this for the rest of his life. He did not walk away unscathed. He understands the gravity of the decision he was forced to make on February 25, 2016.

He often grieves and prays for the Gunn family who were gravely affected by this unfortunate event.

Ask yourself this, what would you want an officer in your neighborhood to do?

You and your neighbors are being terrorized with burglaries in the middle of the night, while you sleep. No one knows who it is. There have been 30 or more break ins in a very short period of time.

Do you want an officer to stop a man walking through your neighborhood alone at 3 in the morning?

Because, according to Daryl Bailey, your superior officer telling you to stop him, your knowledge of case law telling you you're legally allowed to, and crime actively happening in this community during the hours you see this individual walking down the street is not enough for you to stop him and ask questions.

In July 2018, Cody was denied immunity by a Montgomery Circuit Judge who was later forced to recuse from Cody’s case for making extremely biased comments publicly. We requested another immunity hearing in hopes of getting an unbiased ruling on immunity, since the judge that ruled was proven to be biased. The request for a second immunity hearing was denied.

Three years after the shooting, as racial war divides our nation, a trial date is set for Cody in November 2019 in Dale County.

Cody was convicted of the lesser included offense of heat of passion manslaughter.

The jury admitted to being confused during deliberation and requested clarity on the charges they were to rule on. After being told that the charges were explained to them previously in the courtroom, they basically had to give it their best shot.

After falling on the lesser included charge, one of the jurors was overheard saying “Oh, he’ll just lose his job”. In my opinion, they had no idea the gravity of the decision they were making.

Then, in January of 2020, after spending 2 months in Dale County Jail he was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Our hearts were shattered.

The District Attorney got his "famous moment”.

The news reported a "white police officer charged with 14 years for shooting UNARMED black man". My husband's life, our life, our daughters’ lives, and the citizens of Montgomery's lives, were changed forever for a justifiable shooting.

We were shocked at the outright lies and slander Cody was experiencing to get to this point. After being processed into the Department of Corrections and sent to Limestone Correctional Facility, the judge issued a $300,000 appeal bond.

He had been home with us since March 11, 2020, during our appeal process.

On May 21, 2021, Cody's appeal was denied by the Court of Criminal Appeals. Again, heart shattering news after countless prayers and pleading with God to right the injustices that have been done.

After the appeal was denied by the Court of Criminal Appeals our last chance is to get an appeal with the Supreme Court.

The District Attorney was not done trying to make this nightmare worse. Although Cody had been out on his appeal bond and had no violations of that bond whatsoever, Daryl Bailey requested to have Cody's bond revoked due to the amount of time it was taking for the Supreme Court to make a decision and our legal process to be exhausted.

The court sided with the District Attorney, to revoke his appeal bond even though he still has an active appeal in process with the Supreme Court and no violations.

Another heart wrenching but unsurprising decision made by our legal system.

Cody returned to prison to continue serving his 14 year sentence May 9th 2022, leaving behind his wife, 3 daughters, the rest of his family and friends.

The way the City of Montgomery, Daryl Bailey, and the news outlets have handled themselves in this case has been sickening.

The insane miscarriage of justice from the very beginning is unlike anything I have ever seen. From the decision to prosecute a very obviously justified shooting, to the lies and half truths being plastered on the media and the slander against my husband by Daryl Bailey.

It is beyond time that we bring to light the facts and allow everyone to know what Cody and our family have been through in the name of political grandstanding and “woke” media.

Cody has continued to be a pillar of faith and strength throughout this entire process. I have watched him in amazement as he has shared his faith with random people, inmates, and law enforcement officers.

We have had the privilege to witness hearts and lives change through this tragedy. We know that God has a grand plan for his life and we are trying so hard to trust in that and rely on God to guide us in all of this.

We have no doubt that whatever the outcome is, God is sovereign, and He will be glorified either way.

Whether Cody gets out of prison swiftly because we are able to open the eyes of justice which has been clouded by lies and defamation or he has to serve a substantial amount of time.

We know this will be part of God's testimony for him, God is still good all the time and His love and faithfulness in our lives will be strong and resounding.

It is well past time for me to break silence.

Sitting back and trusting the local political system to help and do the right thing is fruitless.  Just like I cannot sit by silently and wait for people to find the Lord, I must be on mission and pray; I will now do the same for my husband.

I cannot expect you to find the truth regarding my husband on the news, from the District Attorney, or by staying silent, so I will project the truth and pray.

I am writing this letter in the hopes you will put aside the societal pressures and racial claims and merely look at the facts, but not as a citizen, as an officer of the law. I am also asking you to read it, share it, mail it, or post it to everyone you can think of and get our story to anyone who will take time to listen.

Please continue to lift in prayer all of the lives changed by this tragic event.

We love all of you dearly.

Sincerely,

Ashley Smith

The Proud Wife of Aaron Cody Smith

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 

2 Corinthians 3:17

And we know that all things work together for good to who love God and are called according to His purpose.

Romans 8:28