Police shooting recalls previous tensions in Montgomery

Colvin Hinson, his wife and their 13-year-old daughter were asleep when a neighbor started banging on his front door and calling his name in the middle of the night.

Empty shell casings were on the ground, fired by what city officials say was a 23-year-old police officer working an overnight shift.

[...] authorities seemed to answer Hinson’s questions Wednesday as they filed a murder charge against 23-year-old Officer Aaron Smith and began the process of firing him over Gunn’s killing.

McDermott called the arrest a “political witch hunt” meant to “quell public unrest” and said fellow officers from across Alabama helped fund Smith’s $150,000 bail.