Murder charges laid in fatal U.S. shooting
Video led to the arrest of father, son in killing of unarmed Black jogger
BRUNSWICK, GA.—After several days of intense public outcry over the lack of arrests in the fatal shooting of a Black man as he ran through a Georgia neighbourhood, the white father and son charged in the case made brief court appearances by video conference Friday, speaking only when asked to confirm their names.
Clad in orange jumpsuits, Gregory and Travis McMichael appeared on screen for about a minute before Magistrate Judge Wallace Harrell, who read each man his rights and the aggravated assault and felony murder charges they face in the Feb. 23 slaying of Ahmaud Arbery.
Earlier in the day — on what would have been Arbery’s 26th birthday — a boisterous crowd of several hundred people, most wearing masks to protect against the coronavirus, gathered outside the Glynn County courthouse for about 90 minutes and sang “Happy Birthday” in his honour.
With the coronavirus dominating the news and drastically altering Americans’ lives, Arbery’s shooting initially drew little attention outside Brunswick, about 115 kilometres south of Savannah.
The Satilla Shores neighbourhood where Arbery was killed lies at Brunswick’s edge, with comfortable brick and stucco homes nestled next to marshland. A wooden cross and flowers left as a memorial near the spot where Arbery died was decorated with foil birthday balloons Friday.
A video of the shooting shared widely on social media Tuesday thrust the case into the national spotlight and prompted widespread outrage. The investigation led by local authorities had seemed stalled and, amid the national uproar, a prosecutor specially appointed last month asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) to get involved. On Thursday evening, the GBI announced the arrests of the McMichaels.
Though the arrests were welcomed, Arbery’s family and their supporters expressed frustration at the long wait and fears that the justice system will fail them.
Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, told police they pursued Arbery, with another person recording them on video, after spotting him running in their neighbourhood. The father and son said they thought he matched the appearance of a burglary suspect who they said had been recorded on a surveillance camera some time before.
Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, has said she thinks her son, a former high school football player, was just jogging in the Satilla Shores neighbourhood before he was killed.
Some of the encounter was apparently recorded in two 911 calls, with a dispatcher trying to understand the problem.
“There’s a Black male running down the street,” a caller says. “I just need to know what he was doing wrong,” the dispatcher responds, in part.
In a second call six minutes later, someone can be heard yelling “Stop . ... Dammit. Stop.” Then, after a pause, “Travis!”
Arrest warrants for Gregory and Travis McMichael filed in court Friday confirmed, as the initial police report stated, that Travis McMichael “pointed and discharged a shotgun ... at Ahmaud Arbery.” But there were no new details.
The felony murder charges against the McMichaels mean that a victim was killed during the commission of an underlying felony, in this case aggravated assault. The charge doesn’t require intent to kill. A murder conviction in Georgia carries a minimum sentence of life in prison, either with or without parole.
In a letter to Glynn County police in early April, a prosecutor previously assigned to the case outlined reasons he believed there was “insufficient probable cause to issue arrest warrants” in the case. Waycross District Attorney George E. Barnhill argued that the McMichaels’ actions were legal under Georgia laws on citizen’s arrests, the open carry of guns and self-defence.
“They did not arrest the killers of Ahmaud Arbery because they saw the video,” Arbery family lawyer Ben Crump said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press.
“They arrested the killers of Ahmaud Arbery because we saw the video, the public saw the video and it went viral. It was shocking. People were astonished.”
Gregory McMichael retired last year as an investigator for Glynn County District Attorney Jackie Johnson, and the connection caused her to recuse herself. Barnhill then got the case before recusing himself under pressure from Arbery’s family because his son works in Johnson’s office.
“All that matters is what the facts tell us,” Georgia Bureau of Investigation director Vic Reynolds said Friday, saying “every stone will be uncovered.”
Addressing the question of racial intent, Reynolds noted that Georgia has no hate crime law. That has prompted many civil rights activists to call for a federal investigation.