Viewers who watch Netflix’s ‘Race: Bubba Wallace’ will likely learn of the talented driver’s efforts in NASCAR and how he blossomed into his role as an unlikely but essential voice against racial foul play. However, something that also shaped Bubba’s thinking as a child was the death of his cousin, Sean Gillispie, when Bubba was just nine years old. In the documentary series, Bubba, his mother and his sister talk about what Sean’s unexpected death meant to their lives. That way, assuming you’re considering what happened to the young man, we’ll take care of you.
How did Sean Gillispie die? During the first long stretches on May 18, 2003, Sean Gillispie was hanging out with a couple of pals in the parking lot of a corner store in Knoxville, Tennessee. According to the show, the 19-year-old had gone to a club before ending up in the parking lot, clearly playing music. The store representative called specialists while he was complaining about the clamor outside, prompting two officials to respond to the call.
By the time officers showed up, the parking lot was packed with numerous vehicles. This caused them to walk in and request that the vehicles leave individually. At the time, Sean was sitting in the back of a vehicle with Frank Mitchell steering the ship. Frank’s cousin, Derek, had come in a similar vehicle, but was in another vehicle nearby at the time of the incident. While the resulting grouping of events became a controversial affair, it ended with one of the referees shooting Sean in the chest, resulting in his death.
Who killed Sean Gillispie? The two officers who reacted to the vociferous objection were David Ogle and Jason Keck. David later stated that the vehicle Frank and Sean were in had the windows rolled down slightly and music was clearly playing. Then, at that point, he walked to the side of the vehicle to ask Frank for his permission and enlistment. Now, David professed to have seen a gun next to Sean in the secondary room with his hand on it.
David quickly asked Sean to drop the gun and raise his hands. This warned Jason, who was currently toward the front of the vehicle. Jason motioned for Frank to put his hands up and David was dodging the vehicle to remove the gun from Sean’s area. Although Jason admitted that he had no idea where the firearm was inside the vehicle, he assured that Sean was moving his hands and then raised them, moving in his direction with a 9mm. Jason now expressed that he feared for his life and consequently shot Sean in the chest. The teen then got out of the vehicle, injured. Derek, who ran up to Sean, later claimed that he saw a phone in Sean’s hand.
In May 2004, Sean’s mother, Tanya Gillispie, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Knoxville, alleging negligence. The family fought because Sean was just trying to get to her phone to make a decision. In any case, the designated authority ultimately checked the city’s approval, saying there was no evidence to discredit Jason’s statement and defending his use of deadly power. On the show, Bubba’s mom, Desiree, talked about how the family was reminded of the disgust every time a person of color was killed by police, something that rang really evident given the situation that unfolded in 2020.