2 CHARGED WITH MURDER IN GA. SHOOTING
Law enforcement officials in Georgia said Friday there was more than sufficient probable cause to justify charging two men with murder in the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery.
The charges against Gregory Mcmichael, 64, and his son Travis Mcmichael, 34, came after the case was moved to a third prosecutor and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called upon this week to investigate.
“I can’t answer what another agency did or didn’t see,” Vic Reynolds, the GBI director, said at a news conference Friday. “But I can tell you that based on our involvement in this case and considering the fact we hit the ground running Wednesday morning and within 36 hours we had secured warrants for two individuals for felony murder, I think that speaks volumes for itself.”
He called the video of the shooting, released this week, compelling evidence.
“It was extremely upsetting,” he said. “On a human level, it’s troubling.”
Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was killed after an encounter with the Mcmichaels, who are white. Arbery was killed in Satilla Shores, a quiet middle-class enclave about 15 minutes from downtown Brunswick and a short jog from Arbery’s neighborhood. A police report said the Mcmichaels had grabbed two guns and followed Arbery in a truck after he ran past them.
The shooting happened Feb. 23, but the case did not receive broader attention until recently, after a video was widely shared showing the shooting. Officials Friday said that the video had been “a very important piece” of evidence in moving forward with criminal charges.
Officials said the charges, coming months after the shooting, had not been driven by the surge of attention around the country, with elected officials, prominent activists and celebrities weighing in and urging action.
“We don’t let that influence the decision,” Tom Durden of Georgia’s Atlantic Judicial Circuit, the latest prosecutor to take on the case, said at the Friday news conference. “We have made the decision based on what we feel like is the applicable law and our interpretation of the evidence that has been uncovered.”