Pair charged on victim’s birthday United States
The white father and son stood quietly yesterday as the judge read murder and aggravated assault charges against them in the fatal shooting of a black man who was running through their Georgia neighbourhood. In about a minute, their first court appearance was over. It was a moment that many in Ahmaud Arbery’s community had waited more than two months for, as a series of prosecutors declined to bring charges against the men.
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 workingclass port city of about 16,000 also serves as a gateway to beach resorts on neighbouring St. Simons and Sea Islands.
The Satilla Shores neighbourhood where Arbery was killed on February 23 lies at Brunswick’s edge. A wooden cross and flowers left as a memorial near the spot where Arbery died was decorated with birthday balloons yesterday.
A video of the shooting shared widely on social media this week 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 to get involved. On Friday the GBI announced the arrests of Gregory and McMichael.
Though the arrests were welcomed, Arbery’s family and 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.
Travis
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 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 attorney Ben Crump said. ‘‘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.’’
Crump blasted the handling of the case by the local police and prosecutors, and said he wants the GBI to ‘‘investigate the entire case from top to bottom.’’
‘‘All that matters is what the facts tell us,’’ Georgia Bureau of Investigation director Vic Reynolds said yesterday, 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.