Father, son charged with murder of black jogger
A WHITE former police officer and his son were arrested in Brunswick, Georgia, and charged with murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black man, an incident that touched off a bitter divide in the community and among civil rights activists across the United States.
Gregory McMichael (64) and his son Travis (34) were taken into custody by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and charged with aggravated assault as well as murder in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in the town of Brunswick, the agency said in a statement.
The February 23 shooting death of Mr Arbery (25), as he ran unarmed through the small town, was captured on video by an unnamed witness in a vehicle near the scene.
The video’s wide broadcast in recent days ignited outrage among activists, politicians and celebrities who saw the incident as the latest case of white perpetrators killing a black man and going unpunished.
A county grand jury will decide if the two men should face charges.
The men’s arrest by the GBI, one day after the agency opened an investigation into the case, appears to have sidelined any grand jury probe.
The video footage shows Mr Arbery jogging down a narrow two-lane road and around the McMichaels’ white pickup truck, which had stopped in the right lane with its driver’s door open.
As Mr Arbery crosses back in front of the truck, a gunshot is fired. Mr Arbery is then seen struggling with a man holding a long gun as a second man stands in the bed of the truck brandishing a revolver. Two more shots are heard before Mr Arbery stumbles and falls face down on to the ground.
According to a police report obtained by the ‘New York Times’, Gregory McMichael, a former Glynn County police officer and district attorney’s investigator, told detectives the incident began when he spotted Mr Arbery from his front yard “hauling ass” down the street.
Mr McMichael told police that, because he suspected Mr Arbery in a string of recent neighbourhood break-ins, he and his son gave chase in the truck, with Gregory McMichael carrying a .357 magnum revolver and Travis armed with a shotgun.
Gregory McMichael said Mr Arbery began to “violently attack” his son, fighting him for the shotgun, prompting Travis to open fire.
According to a letter obtained by the ‘New York Times’, the prosecutor in Brunswick argued there was not probable cause to arrest the McMichaels because they were legally carrying firearms, had a right to pursue a burglary suspect, and to use deadly force to protect themselves.