The Ahmaud Arbery Case: Explained

In February, Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed, 25-year-old black man, was shot to death while jogging in a neighborhood outside Brunswick, Georgia, after being pursued by two white men in a pickup truck. Neither of his pursuers, a father and son named Gregory and Travis McMichael, were arrested or charged with a crime until May.

On May 7 — more than two months after the shooting — the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced that Gregory and Travis McMichael had been taken into custody and charged with aggravated assault and murder.

A statement from the GBI says,

“Gregory and Travis McMichael confronted Arbery with two firearms. During the encounter, Travis McMichael shot and killed Arbery.”

Arbery’s death became a national turning point two days before the McMichaels’ arrest, when graphic video of the incident, filmed by a man who joined the McMichaels in pursuing Arbery, was posted (and then deleted) by a radio station. In the video, Arbery can be seen jogging down the street, when he comes across a truck stopped in the middle of the road. A white man is standing beside the open driver’s seat door, swinging a gun, and another is standing in the truck bed. Arbery attempts to go around the vehicle, then struggles briefly with one of the men, before gunshots can be heard. Afterward, he drops to his knees, mortally wounded.

50-year-old William Bryan reportedly recorded the footage. In an interview with the Today Show weeks before Bryan was arrested, his attorney, Kevin Gough, argued that his client was just “a witness to the tragic shooting.” Gough said Bryan was standing in his yard when he saw Arbery run by and got in his car to follow and film him because “there had been a number of crimes in the neighborhood, and he didn’t recognize him and a vehicle that he did recognize was following him.” The vehicle Bryan recognized would’ve belonged to the McMichaels. Bryan now faces charges of murder and attempted false imprisonment.

---

Although we could post the video here, we won’t. This type of oppression has been occurring for years, however we are only beginning to notice it because of our increased access to cameras. We need to get into the habit of believing black people.

Credits

Sean Rayford/Getty Images