Three months after the violent death of James Scurlock, an unarmed Black man who was shot during protests in Omaha, Nebraska, a grand jury charged a white bar owner with manslaughter (amongst other charges) on Tuesday. Following investigations after the incident, prosecutors did not initially pursue charges against the bar owner, identified as Jake Gardner, and argued that evidence pointed to the shooting as self-defense. However, newly obtained evidence since the initial investigation undermined this claim.
The appointment of a new prosecutor and further investigation followed calls for justice across the nation. After being indicted Tuesday, Gardner was to either turn himself in or face an arrest warrant as he awaited trial. But before turning himself in as scheduled on Sunday, Gardner died by suicide, his attorneys said at a press conference. Gardner’s family requested that his attorneys, Stu Dornan and Tom Monaghan, share the news. “The grand jury indictment was a shock to him,” Dornan said Sunday. “He was really shook up.” According to his attorneys, Gardner did not leave a note.
A news release issued by the Hillsboro Police Department said that Gardner was found inside a medical clinic outside of Portland, Oregon on Sunday afternoon. According to the release, the 38-year-old former Marine had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Gardner was staying with an uncle near Portland because he was afraid to return to Omaha, his attorneys said according to the Omaha World-Herald. “He was deathly afraid of coming back here because he felt he would not get a fair trial,” Dornan said.
Gardner’s attorneys said his suicide was the result of behavioral health issues connected to head trauma Gardner experienced during his military service, in addition to his belief that people were planning to kill him, the Omaha World-Herald reported. According to the outlet, both attorneys had shared this during initial comments following the May 30 shooting. Monaghan alleged that despite his belief that the threats were not credible, Gardner was sent threats on social media and by text.
Following the approval for an arrest warrant Friday, many critics questioned why Gardner was not arrested. However, while it was approved by Douglass County District Judge James Gleason, the warrant was not assigned, the Omaha World-Herald reported. It is unclear why an earlier warrant was not issued. Before arriving in Portland, Gardner was allegedly staying in California, where wildfires affected his ability to travel, according to The Washington Post. His lawyers claim he initially fled to the west coast from Nebraska due to increased threats.
Despite the newly found evidence that Gardner was not acting in self-defense, his attorneys maintained that his act of shooting Scurlock was “a clear case of self-defense.” Monaghan noted that social media “lies” influenced the charges Gardner faced last week. “Cases should be decided in the courtroom and not on social media in the context of public opinion,” Dornan added. According to the case’s special prosecutor, Frederick Franklin, the jury relied on both text messages and Facebook messages from Gardner as evidence. “That evidence can reasonably be construed as an attempt to use a firearm for purposes of killing someone,” Franklin said last week.
Scurlock’s death occurred amid nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice across the country following the violent killing of George Floyd at the hands of police. Despite having a long history of arrests and criminal charges, Gardner was not charged until three months after the incident. The case received national attention as an example of inequality within the country’s justice system. Had petitions for a grand jury not been filed, the incident would have gone without the potential of trial.
“The fact of the matter is, if you’re black growing up in Omaha, and you brandish a gun, and you run from the cops, and you threaten somebody, you don’t walk away with a $200 fine for disorderly conduct,” Justin Wayne, the Scurlock family’s attorney, said last week. While Wayne told the Omaha World-Herald it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the death so soon, he shared that the Scurlock family was still processing what Gardner’s death meant in terms of justice for James.
"Unfortunately, there are two men who have died in a terrible tragedy," Dornan said. "It's a terrible tragedy for the Omaha community, it's a terrible tragedy for James Scurlock and his family, it's a terrible tragedy for the Gardner family."
We can all play a part in preventing suicide. If you or someone you know needs help use #BeThe1To to connect them to resources @800273talk. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255.