The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
3rd man accused of murder in Arbery case
Bryan used his cellphone to capture video of fatal encounter between black jogger, white gunmen.
William “Roddie” Bryan, who filmed the cellphone video capturing the final moments of Ahmaud Arbery’s life, has been charged with felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment, the GBI announced Thursday. He was to be booked into the Glynn County Detention Center.
In a recent interview with Cox Media Group station Action News Jax, Bryan, 50, said he was merely a witness to the fatal Feb. 23 encounter in a neighborhood outside Brunswick.
“I had nothing to do with it,” he told the station.
His attorney wouldn’t let him answer detailed questions about
the incident, but he did offer condolences to Arbery’s family.
“I’m very, very sorry for your loss,” Bryan said during the interview with Action News Jax. “I don’t know what else to say. There’s nothing else I can say.”
The GBI arrested Travis McMichael, 34, and his father, Gregory McMichael, 64, on murder
and aggravated assault charges on May 7, the day before Arbery would have turned 26. The arrests came about 36 hours after the GBI got involved and more than two months after the shooting.
“Probable cause was clear to our agents pretty quickly,” GBI Director Vic Reynolds said during
a news conference the day after the arrests.
Bryan’s attorney, Kevin Gough, this week said his client had no communication with the McMichaels the day of the shooting.
“If there was a lynch mob or posse, Mr. Bryan was unaware of it,” Gough said. Bryan has passed a lie detector test administered privately at his expense, Gough said.
The McMichaels told police they suspected Arbery of recent burglaries and that he became violent when confronted.
Records show that police had not filed a burglary report from the neighborhood for months but had logged 87 calls reporting suspicious behavior, trespassing and thefts between August 2019 and Feb. 23.
Security camera footage at a home under construction in the area shows a person walking through the property on several occasions. The property owner told police nothing was ever taken and his attorney issued a statement speculating that the person might have been stopping by for a drink of water, as footage showed him walking in the direction of a faucet on the property.
Arbery’s family has said he was jogging, as he liked to do in the area, on the day he was fatally shot.
Greg McMichael mentioned Bryan in his statement to police after the shooting. Now retired, McMichael once worked as an investigator in the Glynn County District Attorney’s Office. For that reason, Glynn County District Attorney Jackie Johnson recused herself. Waycross Judicial Circuit District Attorney George Barnhill, the second prosecutor assigned to the case, also recused himself, as his son works in the Glynn County District’s Attorney’s Office, but not before telling Glynn County police in a letter that no charges were warranted. The McMichaels and Bryan, Barnhill wrote, were in “hot pursuit” of Arbery, believing him to be a burglar on the run.
The matter is now being investigated in partnership with Cobb County District Attorney Joyette Holmes, the fourth prosecutor on the case. Hinesville area District Attorney Tom Durden was assigned after the two earlier recusals, but concluded his small office lacked the manpower to take on the case that’s drawn national attention.
Attorneys Lee Merritt, Benjamin Crump and Chris Stewart, who represent Arbery’s family, welcomed the news of Bryan’s arrest on Thursday.
“We called for his arrest from the very beginning of this process,” they said in a statement. “His involvement in the murder of Mr. Arbery was obvious to us, to many around the country and after their thorough investigation, it was clear to the GBI as well.”