Father, son charged in Georgia case
After public outcry, two men were arrested in the fatal shooting of a black man as he ran in neighborhood.
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 neighborhood, the white father and son charged in the case made brief court appearances by videoconference Friday, speaking only when asked to confirm their names.
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 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 honor.
With the coronavirus dominating the news and drastically altering Americans’ lives, Arbery’s shooting initially drew little attention outside Brunswick, 70 miles south of Savannah. The working-class port city of about 16,000 also serves as a gateway to beach resorts on neighboring St. Simons and Sea Islands.
The Satilla Shores neighborhood where Arbery was killed stands at Brunswick’s edge, with comfortable brick and stucco homes nestled next to marshland. A cross and flowers left as a memorial near where Arbery died was decorated with 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 to get involved. On Thursday, 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 neighborhood. 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 neighborhood 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 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.
Anthony Johnson, 40, said Arbery was his neighbor for about a decade.
“Just arresting them, that ain’t doing nothing,” Johnson said. “We want them convicted. We want them sent to prison for life.”