MOON OVER MONTGOMERY

Hacker group Anonymous releases MPD officers' personal info

Josh Moon

Montgomery Advertiser

The “hacktivist” group Anonymous on Friday announced it had released the personal data of several Montgomery Police Department officers, including Aaron Smith who was arrested for the shooting of Gregory Gunn.

In a video posted to YouTube and shared across social media, the group said the data dump, which included officers’ phone numbers, addresses and lists of relatives and their addresses, was in retaliation of Smith’s actions. It promised more releases, including possibly making the department’s entire servers available for download, should Smith not be indicted.

Martha Earnhardt, a Montgomery Department of Public Safety spokesperson, said that MPD was aware of the post by Anonymous but that the department had no additional comment.

Aaron Smith was indicted on a murder charge in connection with the fatal Feb. 25 shooting of 58-year-old Greg Gunn. Gunn died on a neighbor's lawn, just steps away from his home, where he lived with his mother.

This is not the first threat over the shooting of Gunn, who was killed on Feb. 25. Smith’s attorney, Mickey McDermott, said in an interview Wednesday that Smith and his family have been forced into hiding because of a number of threats.

“There are people out there posting wanted posters on Facebook and putting up bounties,” McDermott said. “Why are we not talking about this? This is a good officer. MPD should be standing up for him and protecting him from this.”

However, Smith has his supporters.

A Fundrazr.com account that was started to assist Smith and his family with “living expenses and legal fees” associated with the case was over $7,000 as of Friday afternoon, with more than 100 people offering donations.

Smith was arrested by the State Bureau of Investigations on Wednesday after its investigation found probable cause that the officer murdered Gunn, a 58-year-old grocer who was unarmed and walking home from a late-night card game.

The arrest followed several days of protests and press conferences in the city, as tensions between residents and police and city leaders continued to grow. McDermott alleged Smith’s arrest was merely a means to stop the civil unrest and that Smith used deadly force only after using his Tazer on Gunn six times failed to subdue him.

District Attorney Daryl Bailey denied those claims and said Smith “did have a choice.”