Two Georgia men have been arrested and charged in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a former high school football star who was shot and killed while jogging in the Satilla Shores neighborhood of Brunswick in February.
Retired district attorney investigator Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis McMichael, 34, were charged with murder and aggravated assault, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, the McMichaels blocked Arbery with their truck. The younger McMichael got out of the truck with a shotgun and scuffled with Arbery as he tried to run around the vehicle.
Gregory McMicheal, standing in the truck bed, shot at Arbery with a .357 magnum revolver, and Travis McMichael shot him in the abdomen with the shotgun.
A coroner pronounced Aubrey dead at the scene at 1:46 p.m.
Gregory & Travis McMichael have been arrested for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. There will be a press conference tomorrow morning at 9 AM in Brunswick, GA (1 Conservation Way). https://t.co/jBhe4eIpeW pic.twitter.com/PEsOdnyXdR
— GA Bureau of Invest (@GBI_GA) May 8, 2020
The men were later questioned by authorities. McMichael, according to police, claimed that there had been several break-ins in the neighborhood and that Arbery was caught on security footage earlier that day, looking into a home under construction on his block.
McMichael said when he spotted Arbery jogging, he contacted police, then yelled for him to stop before confronting him.
“[Gregory] McMichael stated the unidentified male began to violently attack Travis and the two men then started fighting over the shotgun at which point Travis fired a shot and then a second later there was a second shot,” the police report read.
Police then told Arbery’s family that there was a “confrontation between her son and the homeowner and a struggle over a gun.”
A leaked video earlier this week shows Arbery attempt to run around the truck when he is confronted by a man who tries to stop him. They struggle, and Arbery appears to be trying to run away before he is shot.
The Glynn County prosecutor recused herself from the investigation because Gregory McMichael was once an investigator in her office. A prosecutor from Waycross assigned to the case said the McMichaels were justified in the shooting, saying he did “not see any grounds” to arrest the men, according to News4Jax.
When the story reached a wider audience than the tiny coastal Georgia county, protesters joined the family to call for an independent investigation. According to the GBI, the Glynn County Police Department asked for their assistance to investigate “allegations of threats against the GCPD” and other involved in the investigation, and on May 5, District Attorney Tom Durden asked state investigators to look into Arbery’s death. They initiated an investigation on Wednesday and arrested the McMichaels the following day.
The two men will be booked into the Glynn County jail, GBI said.
Read more about this case here.
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[Feature Photo: Ahmaud Arbery/Handout; Gregory and Travis McMichael/Facebook]
