A Georgia father and son were charged with murder and aggravated assault Thursday evening in the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery after newly released video appearing to show the moments before his death intensified pressure on authorities to make the arrests.
The charges come more than two months after Arbery was killed. Two local district attorneys recused themselves from the case before the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was brought in. The agency made the arrests the day after the investigation began.
The video shows two men approach a young black man jogging on the street. After a brief interaction, gunshots can be heard and the jogger stumbles to the ground. The footage ignited outrage across the political spectrum, with former vice president Joe Biden comparing it to a lynching and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, calling the shooting “absolutely horrific.”
President Donald Trump, speaking at an event in the Oval Office on Thursday, said he expects to get a “full report” on the incident and called the death “a very sad thing.”
Police have not confirmed the footage is of Arbery, but Arbery’s family’s attorney says it depicts his killing.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the murder in partnership with District Attorney Tom Durden, has scheduled a news conference Friday morning to discuss the McMichaels arrests.
Gregory McMichael, 64, a retired police detective, saw Arbery jogging and believed he looked like a suspect in break-ins in the neighborhood, according to a police report. A local news report found only one burglary was reported to police between Jan. 1 and Feb. 23.
McMichael called his son, Travis McMichael, 34, and they armed themselves with a handgun and shotgun, respectively. They chased Arbery in a truck, according to the report, and Gregory McMichael told police that he shouted to Arbery, “Stop, stop, we want to talk to you,” before, according to their statements, they pulled up beside him in their truck.
Reached by phone Thursday afternoon before he was arrested, Greg McMichael said, “There are many, many facts out there that have not come to light.”
“This is all based on the video and newspaper story, all the stuff that led up to that still hasn’t been released,” he said.
Greg McMichael refused to comment further because the case is under investigation. He referred to his attorney, Alan Tucker, who did not return an email requesting comment on the case.
The case has been assigned to a carousel of prosecutors, beginning with Jackie Johnson in the Brunswick Judicial Circuit, who recused herself from the case in February because Greg McMichael was previously an investigator in her office. The case then went to George Barnhill, district attorney for Georgia’s Waycross Judicial Circuit, who also recused himself, after Arbery’s mother complained that Barnhill’s son worked used to work with McMichael in the Brunswick District Attorney’s Office, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.
On Tuesday, Durden – the latest district attorney to take on the case – said in a statement that the case should be presented to a grand jury for consideration of criminal charges.
Arbery’s attorney, Lee Merritt, noted in a statement that grand juries in Georgia are temporarily suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic and urged that the three suspects named in the case be taken into custody immediately, pending their indictment. A statewide moratorium on judicial proceedings was extended this week until June 12, meaning it could be another month before the case is heard.
Meanwhile, protests have erupted in the town. The NAACP held one Wednesday and is planning a 10 a.m. demonstration at the courthouse in Brunswick on Friday.
Also Friday, Jason Vaughn, Abery’s former football coach, is organizing a social media-based memorial where participants will post videos about their 2.23-mile runs in honor of the slain jogger. He died Feb 23.
The killing has resurrected ever-raw wounds of white on black violence, which has become more visible in recent years thanks to the prevalence of cellphone cameras.
Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, spoke passionately about the incident during a virtual campaign roundtable focused on African-American issues Thursday, telling participants that watching Arbery “shot down in cold blood” was like seeing him “lynched before our very eyes.”
He called the fatal shooting the latest example of the “rising pandemic of hate” in America. Biden has said it was the protests involving white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 – and Trump’s lack of a full-throated condemnation of them – that spurred him to run for president.
During the Obama administration, shootings of unarmed black teenagers Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown drew massive protests, sparking the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and bringing wider attention to issues of race and justice.
Trump, who argued there were “very fine people on both sides” of the Charlottesville protests in 2017, said in the Oval Office Thursday, “My heart goes out to the parents and the loved one of the young gentleman.”
Kemp, the governor, sought to assure Georgia residents that the state is taking the case seriously.
“Earlier this week, I watched a video depicting Mr. Arbery’s last moments alive,” he said in a statement Thursday. “It is absolutely horrific, and Georgians deserve answers.”
Georgia Democrat Lucy McBath, whose run for Congress was inspired by the death of her son, Jordan Davis – an unarmed black teenager gunned down at a gas station over his loud music – called Arbery’s killing a “murder.”
“Outrageous and unconscionable. This is murder. Full stop. We cannot continue allowing this to happen in America. I hurt for this young man’s family. We must demand justice,” she tweeted.
Other members of the state’s congressional delegation also responded to the video.
“What I saw on the video is disturbing and wrong and looks like a criminal act. It must be thoroughly investigated, and I can’t imagine why it has taken this long to come to light,” said Rep. Douglas Collins, a Republican, who is running for Senate.
His Republican opponent, Sen. Kelly Loeffler, tweeted: “I am deeply concerned by the death of Ahmaud Arbery, and I join Georgians across the state in calling for swift action and immediate answers. My prayers are with the Arbery family for their devastating loss.”
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican U.S. senator, said it’s time for America to face some “hard truths.”
“Every.single.time. The excuses pour in – “he looked suspicious”. . . “we thought he was committing a crime”. . .The fact remains, #AhmaudArbery was hunted down from a pickup truck and murdered in cold blood,” Scott said in the first of a series of tweets on the subject. “My heart breaks for his family, and justice must be served.”
GRAPHIC WARNING:
(c) 2020, The Washington Post · Michael Brice-Saddler, Colby Itkowitz, Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
{Matzav.com}
MATZAV stop getting these articles from FAKE NEWS SOURCES!!!! President Trump’s comments about Charlottesville had nothing to do with killing black teenagers!!! It had to do with whether it was appropriate to retain war memorials to those who fought in the Civil War ,those who fought on the South side as well as on the North.It was referring to those who felt both on the North and on the South should be remembered.
ok, gotta be careful here. Was definitely taking the whole story in. Seemed horrible. Shooting an innocent person in cold blood. I noted that they were pursuing him because they thought he was a thief. Yet even if he were, how do you just mow down a guy because he stole stuff?
But then i saw the video, and what i see is someone running, the view is obstructed, and then you see him running toward the other man with the weapon. WHOA, different story. The now you have a “stand your ground, case”. not some unarmed fellow being mowed down.
To be clear, it ISNT clear exactly what occurred, but it sure isnt a cut and dry case.
(as an aside,the article notes that only one theft had been reported to the police during that time period, that is typical media, just because there is only one report doesnt mean the locals arent aware of more)
This must be the first case of homicide that Matzav felt compelled to post it.
“WHOA, different story. The now you have a “stand your ground, case”.”
You do not have a stand your ground case when you chase someone down with a weapon without probable cause. Probable cause is not being black.
right. I agree with you. If you chase someone down that would not be stand your ground. but if you are in front of someone who then, seemingly, runs at you to grasp your weopon, that may very well be a “stand your ground situation, if not an all out self defense. Notice the one who fired was the man on the bed of the truck, he could have fired for a while beforeas this fellow was running “toward” him. Yet he only fired when the black fellow reached the other guy, WHY? maybe because he attacked him? turning the situation from confrontation to physical struggle?
The argument can still be made that he was compelled to “take the initiative” rather than wait for the situation to turn bad for him. But that basically is my point. Its not a black and white case. pun intended.
Furthermore, you state that being black is not probable cause. I would DEFINTELY agree with you on that, but what YOU dont know is whether there was other probable cause.