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MONTGOMERY, Ala. - A former state trooper charged in the murder of a black man at a civil rights melee at Marion in 1965 won high ratings and a raise after the fatal shooting, but got fired three years later for knocking out a supervisor.
During James Bonard Fowler's seven years as a state trooper, he was responsible for killing two men - both black - in shootings he said were in self-defense. Neither shooting death is mentioned in Fowler's state personnel file, provided by the agency at the request of The Associated Press.
After his firing from the trooper force, he became a decorated military veteran, serving in Vietnam, ran a small cattle farm in southeast Alabama and was sued by his daughter. He has also become the latest defendant in a cold case from the civil rights era.
Fowler, 73, of Geneva surrendered Thursday in Marion to face a murder indictment for the shooting death of Jimmie Lee Jackson on Feb. 18, 1965. Fowler, who is free on bond, maintains he shot when Jackson tried to grab his gun during a struggle between marchers and state troopers.
On May 8, 1966, Fowler killed Nathan Johnson Jr., 34, of Birmingham, in a confrontation at the Alabaster city jail. News reports at the time said Johnson, arrested for DUI, grabbed Fowler's nightstick and hit him on the shoulder and arm before Fowler shot him twice in the chest.
After getting fired for striking his supervisor in 1968, Fowler entered the military, serving until the early 1970s and winning silver stars for...