The Indictment
The three men accused in the February 23rd murder of Ahmaud Arbery were indicted Wednesday by a grand jury, a district attorney said.
Glynn County’s Grand Jury has indicted Travis McMichael, his father, Greg McMichael, and William R. Bryan on malice and felony murder charges in Arbery’s death, Cobb District Attorney Joyette M. Holmes said at a press conference.
Gregory and Travis McMichael have been arrested since May 7 for the shooting death of Arbery. They face state charges of felony murder and aggravated assault.
William “Roddie” Bryan Jr., the man who recorded the fatal shooting of Arbery, was arrested the previous week on charges including felony murder.
The charges also include aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment, according to the indictment.
What Happened
Arbery, who was black, was jogging outside Brunswick, Georgia, on February 23 when Gregory McMichael and his son, who are white, chased after him, authorities said. Arbery and Travis McMichael struggled over the latter’s shotgun and Arbery was shot three times. Gregory McMichael told police Arbery attacked his son, a police report says.
The killing sparked outrage across a nation after a disturbing video of the shooting emerged online on May 5. “Jogging while black” became the latest example of the many perils visited on African Americans.
Arbery’s family said he was jogging through the neighborhood. Video shows him stopping by a house under construction, a home near the McMichaels. According to a Glynn County Police report, Gregory McMichael later told officers that he thought Arbery looked like a person whom they suspected in a series of recent break-ins in the area. Which was a lie.
No string of break-ins was reported in more than seven weeks before Arbery’s death, and there was only a burglary report after a gun was stolen from an unlocked vehicle in front of the McMichaels’ home, police said.
Bryan made the video recording of the fatal shooting that went viral and led first to the McMichaels’ arrests, and then to his own.
Investigators said they believed Bryan used his vehicle to try to “confine and detain” Arbery multiple times in the minutes leading to Arbery’s death, an arrest warrant says. In testimony earlier this month, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent said Arbery probably felt trapped and that he had to fight.
Earlier this month, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr requested the Department of Justice investigate the handling of this case.
A Department of Justice spokesperson confirmed earlier this month that the Civil Rights Division of the department was assessing the evidence in the case to determine whether federal hate crime charges were appropriate. Georgia was one of a handful of states that did not have a hate crime statute. Until now.
Ahmaud Arbery
Pictured from left: William R. “Roddie” Bryan, Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael. (Glynn County Sheriff’s Office/AFP/Getty Images)
