Footage shows the moment two men were arrested in the alleged murder of Georgia man Ahmaud Arbery, 25.
Gregory McMichael, 64, and son Travis McMichael, 34, were taken into custody on Thursday, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Records show that the pair of locked up on a count each of murder, and aggravated assault. Travis is being charged as the primary aggressor, while the elder McMichael is considered a “party to the crime.”
Authorities said Arbery was shot and killed in Glynn County, Georgia on February 23.
Gregory McMichael told police they believed that the victim was the suspect of burglaries in the area, according to a Glynn County police affidavit obtained by CBS This Morning on Wednesday. He claimed that he and his son tried to stop Arbery to talk to him, and he said that Arbery attacked son Travis McMichael. In other words, this was self-defense done in a citizen’s arrest. No charges were immediately pressed, and the case ended up on its third prosecutor because of conflicts of interest. (The elder McMichael was a longtime police officer, and later an investigator for a prosecutor’s office.)
Arbery’s family said he was a routine jogger. He would’ve turned 26 on Friday. The defendants declined to comment in the CBS report.
The GBI said they were only asked to look into the homicide investigation on Tuesday.
GBI Director Vic Reynolds said in a press conference Friday that the investigation is ongoing, and they are looking into “everybody” including a third man who filmed the video and attempted to block Arbery with his own vehicle, but wasn’t charged.
“I believe it was a hate crime,” Ahmaud’s sister Jasmine Arbery told CNN host Chris Cuomo after news of the arrests on Thursday. Asked why, she said, “It was one black guy and three white guys. My brother was jogging.”
[Screengrab via First Coast News]