The white father and son who shot dead Ahmaud Arbery have been indicted by a grand jury on murder charges, alongside their neighbor who filmed the killing.
Prosecutor Joyette Holmes said today a Glynn County grand jury has indicted Travis, 34, and Greg McMichael, 64, and William ‘Roddie’ Bryan Jr., 50, on charges including malice and felony murder in the death of the unarmed jogger.
Arbery was killed February 23 when the McMichaels, armed themselves and pursued him. Bryan said he saw the McMichaels driving by and joined the chase, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified earlier this month.
Greg McMichael told police he suspected Arbery, 25, was a burglar and that Arbery attacked his son before being shot.
Bryan lives just a few houses away from the McMichaels, close to where the killing took place. He has said he was only a ‘witness’ and not an accomplice in the shooting.
The killers evaded prosecution for more than two months, after the father and son team initially claimed they thought Arbery was a burglar after a spate of thefts in the area, and that he attacked them when they tried to make a citizen’s arrest.
But shocking cellphone footage – taken by Bryan – was leaked months later, showing the two men chasing and gunning down the victim in the street.
You can watch the footage below (viewer discretion advised).
The McMichaels were then arrested on May 7.
Bryan was arrested on May 22, and an arrest warrant said he tried ‘to confine and detain’ Arbery without legal authority by ‘utilizing his vehicle on multiple occasions’ before Arbery was shot.
In addition to malice murder and felony murder charges, the McMichaels and Bryan each are charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count each of false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.
‘This is another positive step, another great step for finding justice for Ahmaud, for finding justice for this family and the community beyond,’ prosecutor Holmes said during the news conference, which was streamed online by news outlets.
The harrowing video showed the men ‘ambushing’ Arbery as he tried to run past their pickup truck.
The leak of the video sparked outrage across the nation with LeBron James, Justin Bieber and Kendall Jenner all leading cries for the McMichaels to be charged with murder.
A lawyer for Bryan has maintained that his client was merely a witness.
Gregory and Trevor McMichael allegedly trailed Arbery in their pick-up truck, believing that he was a suspect in two recent burglaries that occurred in the area. They became involved in an altercation, and Arbery was shot and killed
Court functions in Georgia have been severely limited in recent months because of a statewide judicial emergency declared by the chief justice of the state Supreme Court in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Holmes said they were able to call in a grand jury that had been impaneled prior to the judicial emergency. They followed public guidelines, providing hand sanitizer to the grand jurors and allowing them to sit far apart, she said.
Because of the uncertainty caused by the virus, the Arbery family didn’t know when the next steps would be taken after a probable cause hearing held earlier this month, Holmes said. But they were notified as soon as the grand jury returned an indictment, she said.
‘The family was ecstatic to hear that it had happened this morning,’ she said.