Vigil marks year after Black man’s slaying

Family and friends walked in procession through the coastal subdivision where armed men chased and shot Ahmaud Arbery in the street one year ago. Others joined his mother for a vigil at the rural church where he’s buried. Lawmakers paused to remember him at the Georgia state Capitol.

As three men await trial for murder, those closest to Arbery sought to make sure his death isn’t overlooked.

“He isn’t going to rest in his grave until we get justice,” Marcus Arbery, Arbery’s father, said Tuesday.

Arbery from three close-range shotgun blasts after a white father and son armed themselves and pursued him in a pickup upon spotting the young Black man running in their neighborhood. Attorneys for the men say they suspected he was a burglar.

Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, filed a civil lawsuit accusing the men charged in her son’s death and local authorities who first responded to the shooting of violating his civil rights. The complaint seeks $1 million.