‘I want justice’: Family of man killed demands accountability

Shooting occurred at a gas station Saturday

A weekend killing of a Black man named Alvin Motley at a Kroger gas station in Memphis is now drawing attention from prominent national civil rights attorneys and organizations, and his family members told reporters Tuesday that Motley was legally blind, unarmed and not a threat.

A security guard is accused of arguing with the 48-year-old Motley over loud music, then fatally shooting him. Attorneys working with the family said they want immediate civil settlement negotiations with grocery giant Kroger and a third-party company who em

ployed the guard.

Noted civil rights attorney Ben Crump on Tuesday joined Motley’s family members in a news conference to decry the killing as yet another example of slayings of unarmed Black men.

“Nobody has a right to kill a young Black man for playing music!” Crump said. “I don’t care how loud you think it is, you do not have a right to kill a young Black man for playing music.”

Security guard Gregory Livingston already faces a second-degree murder charge in the Saturday shooting at the Kroger Fuel Center at 6660 Poplar Avenue, near the line between East Memphis and Germantown.

Crump and family members met early in the day with Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich.

Van Turner, a Shelby County Commissioner and an attorney with the NAACP, said the group demands a conviction on the second-degree murder charge. And he called for the companies involved — Kroger and the security firm — to come to the table quickly to discuss a settlement.

Crump also drew a parallel between Motley’s death and the shooting death of Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old who was killed by Michael David Dunn in Florida in 2012. In that case, Crump said, Dunn was also angry over a Black male playing music.

After Crump’s remarks, family members approached the pulpit one by one to paint of portrait of who Motley was in life.

Alvin Motley Sr., who drove down to Memphis from Chicago, described his son as a man who loved his family. The Motley family, he said, is a large, tightknit family based in Memphis and Chicago. Motley Jr. was in Memphis for a visit with his niece and nephew when he was killed.

The elder Motley said he believes in forgiveness, and has chosen to forgiven the man who killed his son. But he still wants accountability. “I want this man to be punished to the fullest extent. I just want justice for my son,” Motley Sr. said.

The Memphis Police Department arrested Livingston Sunday. He has been charged with second-degree murder. According to an arrest affidavit, he told police when they arrived on the scene Saturday that he had shot Motley.

COMMERCIAL APPEAL JOE RONDONE/THE Tasheta Motley, center, is held by daughter Tammy Sykes and holds hands with civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump before a news conference at Mt. Olive CME Church Tuesday on the shooting death of Alvin Motley, 48, Saturday at a Kroger gas station.

TYLER VAZQUEZ Ben Crump walks arm in arm with Sincere Pierce’s family outside the Moore Justice Center in Viera

DANIEL CONNOLLY The Memphis Police Department responds to the shooting death of Alvin Motley Saturday. Motley was shot by a security guard at the Poplar Avenue gas station during a dispute over his car stereo’s volume. The security guard, Gregory Livingston, has been charged with second-degree murder.