The two white men seen in a viral video fatally shooting an unarmed black man dead while he was jogging around their neighbourhood have finally been arrested and charged in connection with the shooting.
The charges came more than two months after Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was killed in a residential street just outside the port city of Brunswick in Georgia.
A graphic video of Arbery’s final moments was shared online this week, prompting a national outcry from people who called for the suspects to be arrested and charged.
On Thursday, Georgia authorities arrested Gregory McMichael, 64, alongside his son Travis McMichael, 34, and charged them with murder in connection with the killing of Ahmaud Arbery.
In the video, Arbery was seen jogging in Georgia when he was stopped by McMichael and his father in a white pickup truck. McMichael was armed with a shotgun. Arbery ran around the truck trying to avoid a confrontation before he and McMichael started struggling.
After at least two shots, the men continued struggling over the gun, until Arbery stumbled away, and then collapsed to the ground. He was later pronounced dead.
Gregory McMichael, previously told police that he and his son chased after Arbery because they suspected him of being a burglar. But Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, said her son, a former football player, was just jogging in the Satilla Shores neighborhood before he was killed on a Sunday afternoon.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced the arrests after an investigation at the request of an outside prosecutor.
The agency said in a news release that Gregory McMichael and his 34-year-old son, Travis McMichael, have been arrested on charges of murder and aggravated assault.
The GBI news release said the McMichaels “confronted Arbery with two firearms. During the encounter, Travis McMichael shot and killed Arbery.”
Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the slain man’s father, Marcus Arbery, said : “This is the first step to justice. This murderous father and son duo took the law into their own hands. It’s a travesty of justice that they enjoyed their freedom for 74 days after taking the life of a young black man who was simply jogging.”
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