In the midst of nationwide protests against police brutality in the summer of 2020, the city of Omaha, Nebraska, became the scene of a fatal encounter that cut short the life of James Scurlock, a 22-year-old Black man. On the night of May 30, 2020, as demonstrations unfolded in the Old Market area, a confrontation outside a bar owned by Jacob Gardner, a 38-year-old white male, escalated with deadly consequences.
Surveillance footage captured parts of the chaotic incident, which began with a verbal altercation and physical shoving between Gardner's father and protesters. Gardner, who was armed, brandished his handgun. Shortly after, he was tackled to the ground. He fired what he would later describe as warning shots, causing some people to flee.
As Gardner was getting up, Scurlock jumped on his back. A struggle ensued for about 20 seconds, ending when Gardner fired a shot over his shoulder, striking Scurlock in the clavicle. Scurlock was transported to Nebraska Medicine, where he died from his injury. The initial aftermath of the shooting saw Gardner taken into custody but released within 36 hours. The Douglas County Attorney, Don Kleine, announced that no charges would be filed, concluding that Gardner had acted in self-defense. This decision was met with immediate public outcry and accusations of racial motivation, further intensifying tensions in the city.
In response to the growing controversy and calls for a more thorough investigation from Scurlock's family and community leaders, a grand jury was convened to review the case with a special prosecutor appointed to lead the investigation. This deeper dive into the evidence included Gardner's cell phone records and Facebook messages, which the special prosecutor stated undermined the self-defense claim. On September 15, 2020, the grand jury returned a different verdict, indicting Gardner on four felony charges: manslaughter, use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony, attempted first-degree assault, and making terroristic threats. Special prosecutor Fred Franklin asserted that evidence suggested Gardner had been "threatening the use of deadly force in the absence of being threatened with... deadly force by James Scurlock or anyone who was associated with him."
The legal pursuit of justice in James Scurlock's death, however, took another turn before Gardner could stand trial. Gardner, who had left Nebraska following the shooting, was in Oregon when the indictment was announced and was required to turn himself in. On September 20, 2020, the day he was scheduled to surrender to authorities in Omaha, Gardner died by suicide in Hillsboro, Oregon. His attorneys stated that the grand jury indictment had come as a shock to him. The case concluded without a trial, leaving two families and a community to grapple with the tragic events of that night.
