On Tuesday, a grand jury charged Gardner with manslaughter, attempted assault, making terroristic threats, and using a gun to commit a felony.
Authorities charged Gardner, 38, with killing an unarmed Black Lives Matter protester during May protests in Omaha, Nebraska. He was due to turn himself in just hours before authorities discovered his lifeless body outside a medical clinic.
Gardner’s legal team added that their client was killed by “a cocktail of behavioral health problems stemming from head trauma he experienced during military service, the belief that people were out to kill him, and an ‘incessant rush to judgment’ by social media jockeys.”
Gardner fatally shot Scurlock, a 22-year-old Black Lives Matter protester, during a protest on May 30. Gardner encountered Scurlock outside his downtown Omaha bar. Following the fatal shooting, Gardner faced death threats, and the owner of the building that housed the bar revoked his lease.
Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine initially declined to file charges against Gardner, reportedly believing that the suspect acted in self-defense.
Following the announcement, Kleine appointed special prosecutor Fred Franklin as well as a grand jury, saying that he had hopes the gesture would “restore public faith in the justice system.”
“The grand jury indictment was a shock to him, it was a shock to us, it was a shock to many people,” Dornan told the World-Herald following his client’s suicide.
