Arrests urged in black man’s killing

Georgia pair are free 2 months after Ahmaud Arbery died in clash shown on video.

SAVANNAH, Ga. — The parents of a black man slain in a pursuit by two white men armed with guns called for immediate arrests Wednesday as they faced the prospect of waiting a month or longer before a Georgia grand jury could consider bringing charges.

The outcry over the Feb. 23 shooting of Ahmaud Arbery intensified Tuesday after the appearance online of a cellphone video that lawyers for his family say shows the killing. After the video’s release, a large crowd marched in the neighborhood where Arbery was killed, and the state opened an investigation. The men who pursued Arbery told police they suspected he had committed a recent burglary.

Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, told reporters Wednesday she believes her 25-year-old son “was just out for his daily jog ” in the neighborhood outside Brunswick. She hasn’t watched the video.

“It’s not something that I’ll want to see ever,” Jones said.

No arrests have been made or charges filed in Glynn County over two months after the killing. An outside prosecutor placed in charge of the case said he wants a grand jury to decide whether criminal charges are warranted. That won’t happen until at least midJune, since Georgia courts are largely closed due to the coronavirus.

Attorneys for Arbery’s family said the two white men — a father and son who acknowledged in a police report that they grabbed guns and pursued Arbery in a truck after seeing him running — should be arrested now before a grand jury decides whether to indict them.

“These men were vigilantes, they were a posse, and they performed a modern lynching in the middle of the day,” said Lee Merritt, an attorney for Arbery’s mother.

According to a Glynn County police incident report, Arbery was shot after

Gregory McMichael told police he and his adult son thought the runner matched the description of someone caught on a security camera committing a recent break-in in the neighborhood.

The father said his son, Travis McMichael, got out of the truck holding a shotgun, and Arbery “began to violently attack.” He said Arbery was shot as the two men fought over the shotgun.

After Arbery was shot, the police report says, Gregory McMichael turned him onto his back to see whether he was armed. The report doesn’t say whether he had a weapon.

The cellphone video, initially posted by a Brunswick radio station, shows a black man running at a jogging pace on the left side of a road. A truck is parked in the road ahead of him. One man is inside the pickup’s bed, and another is standing beside the open driver’s side door.

The runner crosses the road to pass the pickup on the passenger side, then crosses back in front of the truck. A gunshot sounds, and the video shows the runner grappling with a man in the street over what appears to be a shotgun or rifle. A second shot can be heard, and the runner can be seen punching the man. A third shot is fired at point-blank range. The runner staggers a few feet and falls face down.

Tom Durden, the district attorney appointed to oversee the case, declined to comment Tuesday when asked whether the video depicts Arbery’s shooting.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating the shooting after Durden requested the agency’s help, agency spokeswoman Nelly Miles said.

Georgia law says a person can kill in self-defense “only if he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent death or great bodily injury ... or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.” The law also says a person who provokes an attack or acts as “the aggressor” can’t claim self-defense.

Jackie Johnson, the district attorney for Glynn County, recused herself from the case because Gregory McMichael worked as an investigator in her office. He retired a year ago.