Shot black man’s mother files lawsuit

ATLANTA: The mother of Ahmaud Arbery filed a federal civil rights lawsuit yesterday against the three men accused of killing her son, a black man who was chased down and shot dead as he jogged through his Georgia neighbourhood.

The $1 million suit, filed by Wanda Cooper on the anniversary of her son’s death, also names police and other officials who did not initially bring charges in the case.

The lawsuit alleges the killing was racially motivated, stating the defendants ‘‘were motivated to deprive Ahmaud Arbery of equal protection of the law and his rights by bias, animus, [and] discrimination’’.

The suit claims the Glynn County Police Department and prosecutors were part of a ‘‘deliberate effort to cover up Ahmaud’s murder’’.

A video of the death of Arbery (25) in the coastal city of Brunswick sparked outrage across the United States, civil rights activists saying it was yet another a targeted attack on a black man.

Former Glynn County police officer, Gregory McMichael (64) and his son, Travis (34), were charged with murder and aggravated assault, about two months after the shooting, when state authorities stepped in. — Reuters

PHOTO: REUTERS Life cut short . . . A man holds a candle next to the grave of Ahmaud Arbery — an unarmed young black man shot and killed after being chased by a white former law enforcement officer and his son — during a vigil to mark the first anniversary of his death, at New Springfield Baptist Church in Waynesboro, Georgia, the United States yesterday.