Carrying signs and chanting, “I am Lacy; I am Byrd,” protesters marched to the Leflore County Courthouse Tuesday evening in support of the two men shot Saturday night at Lee Abraham’s law office.
About 38 people, mostly young women and children, walked the half mile up Fulton Street from Sam Leach Park beginning at about 5:15 p.m.
They then walked back to the park, which is located in the Gibbs/Palace Street neighborhood.
Duchess Dallas, who lives in Greenwood and is a student at Mississippi Valley State University, organized the rally.
“What we’re trying to do is make sure they receive equal treatment,” Dallas said, referring to Derrick Lacy and Keaira Byrd.
Dallas said she’s not claiming the men are innocent but that others were involved in the shootout Saturday and should be subject to investigation.
Byrd was killed, and Lacy was critically wounded Saturday during a confrontation at Abraham’s office with agents from the state Attorney General’s Office. Afterward, two others — Dr. Arnold Smith and Paul Muller — were charged with plotting to kill Abraham.
Smith, a Greenwood oncologist, is being held without bond in the Leflore County Jail, while Muller, a Morgan City brickmason, was released Tuesday on a $250,000 bond.
According to a sworn statement by Greenwood Police Det. Jeff Byars, Lacy and Byrd arranged to meet Abraham to sell him a gun they said Smith had provided them. The proposed transaction was a double-cross: Smith wanted them to kill Abraham with the gun, but Lacy and Byrd were going to sell the weapon — which they said had Smith’s fingerprints on it — to the attorney as evidence for an ongoing investigation into a plot to take Abraham’s life, according to Byars’ affidavit.
Abraham invited the Attorney General’s Office to the scene.
When Byrd and Lacy arrived, Byrd was wearing a ski mask and carrying an assault weapon, and intended to kill Abraham, according to Byars’ affidavit and a statement from the Attorney General’s Office.
Shots blazed. One agent was grazed by a bullet, in addition to Byrd’s and Lacy’s injuries.
On Tuesday, across from the courthouse, signs of the shootout were still evident. A contractor’s dumpster was filled with debris hauled out of Abraham’s law office, where workers continue to patch up the walls riddled by bullets.
Many in Greenwood’s black community have questioned the version of events laid out by law enforcement officials.
Dallas said she’s spoken with NAACP officials about a larger rally this weekend or next week.
“We’re not going to be heard unless we bring in people from the outside,” she said.
The protesters took their slogan — “I am Lacy; I am Byrd” — from the Trayvon Martin case. He was an unarmed 17-year-old black male shot in February in Florida by a neighborhood watch volunteer. Martin’s death sparked widespread protest after his shooter — George Zimmerman, who is half-white and half-Hispanic — was not initially charged. Zimmerman has since been charged with second-degree murder.
“I am Trayvon” became a rallying cry because of the everyday nature of the attack — Martin was shot while returning home from the store.
In the case of Lacy, though, the rallying cry seems incongruous with his background. Besides his alleged role as an assassin, the 25-year-old was a felon, serving five years in state prisons after being convicted in 2005 of a house burglary. He had also been charged last year with the armed robbery of a friend who allegedly let Lacy into his house to get a glass of water and was subsequently robbed at gunpoint.
Lacy has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder for the alleged plot against Abraham and capital murder for the death of Byrd.
• Contact Charlie Smith at 581-7235 or csmith@gwcommonwealth.com.
