A crowd shut down an East Memphis Kroger fuel station Thursday calling for justice for Alvin Motley Jr. who was shot and killed by a security guard there earlier this month.
Activists, attorneys, and family members rallied in the gas station’s parking lot near Kirby and Poplar.
“This gas station is closed for business,” activist LJ Abraham, shouted on a megaphone. “If you buy gas here today, you support racism.”
Abraham said Kroger is limiting the information they are providing and has not taken responsibility for its role in Motley’s killing.
“They hired the security firm, therefore they hold some responsibility in the killing of Mr. Motley, but they will not speak to that,” Abraham said. “The least they can do is come out and offer a sincere apology. But then what else can they do moving forward to take care of this family?”
Others parked their cars at the fuel station, playing music from their speakers. Cardboard signs reading “Music for Motley” were displayed in windshields.
Rally-goers used orange traffic cones to stop customers from entering the gas station.
Pastor Peris Lester said Motley was killed for loud music, but “today we are calling for louder justice.”
Carl Adams, Motley’s cousin, said what happened to Motley was a “cold-blooded murder.”
Dr. Robert Motley Jr., another cousin of Motley, said there needs to be policies in place so that other families “don’t have to suffer the way we have suffered.”
Motley was allegedly fatally shot by former Horn Lake police officer Gregory Livingston following a verbal altercation over loud music, police say. Livingston was charged with second degree murder and is currently in jail on a $1.8 million bond.
Nashville District Attorney General Glenn Funk was appointed special prosecutor in the case.
Kroger has since cut ties with Allied Universal Security, the third-party company for which Livingston worked.
Earlier Thursday a memorial service was held for Motley at Mt. Olive Cathedral CME Church. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the Motley family, called for the footage of Motley’s shooting to be released to the public.
“When it’s a Black person lying dead on the ground and it’s a white person that killed him, we start getting all these reasons why we can’t be transparent,” Crump said.
The footage was shown to the Motley family and attorneys Thursday morning, but Crump said there is no justification for it not to be released publicly.
“It is heart wrenching when you watch how unnecessary, how unjustifiable, and how shocking it was that this Allied Security guard shot this unarmed Black man who had a can of beer in his hand and a cigarette in the other,” Crump said. “What could be so dangerous about a Black man holding a beer can and taking a puff of a cigarette?”
Crump said there was no reason for Motley to be killed.
“What is it about Black men that is so fearful to white America that they shoot first and ask questions later?” Crump said. “We have to continue to push for transformative justice. And the only way to get transformative justice is to have truth and transparency.”
Members of Motley’s family also urged for the video to be released. Cara Adams, Motley’s cousin, called Motley’s shooting “the worst act of white terrorism against a Black life that I have ever seen” after watching the video.
“Situations like that are a modernized version of white terrorists who would go and lynch a Black man on the street,” Adams said. “It’s that same disdain, same distaste, same hate that’s deep-rooted in this country in a very systemic and systematic way.”
Adams said through tears when the video is released, people will be able to feel “how little a Black life matters in this country.”
“The video really affirmed to me that in this country it’s a crime to be a Black man or a Black woman,” Adams said.
