Arrests Made After Slain Jogger's Family Hires Attorneys, Who Release Shooting Video
Tallahassee attorney Ben Crump was hired by the father of a Georgia jogger who was gunned down while on a run near his home. Arrests were made shortly afterward.
May 07, 2020 at 03:30 PM
4 minute read
The frustrated parents of a slain black jogger seeking justice for their son announced they hired attorneys who released a video showing Ahmaud Arbery's fatal shooting, and a white father and son were arrested shortly afterward.
Marcus Arbery hired Tallahassee attorney Ben Crump, a personal injury attorney who has built a national reputation as a civil rights attorney since representing the family of Trayvon Martin. The African American teenager was killed by a neighbor while walking home in Sanford.
Civil rights attorney S. Lee Merritt of McEldrew Young Purtell in Philadelphia represents Arbery's mother.
They got involved this week after more than two months passed without an arrest. They released the video of Arbery's shooting taken Feb. 23 from a passing car's dashboard camera, which prompted outrage Thursday in Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
He diverted at the beginning of a coronavirus briefing to talk about the video, which he called "absolutely horrific," and what had been a stalled investigation.
The video shows two white men in a pickup truck stopping a young black man on a shady tree-lined residential road. One jumped out with a shotgun. The other stood in the back with a handgun drawn. During the confrontation, shots were fired. Arbery kept trying to run but fell in the road in front of the truck, never to regain consciousness.
"The series of events captured in this video confirm what all the evidence indicated prior to its release— Ahmaud Arbery was pursued by three white men that targeted him solely because of his race and murdered him without justification," Merritt said in a tweet with the video Tuesday. "This is murder."
On Wednesday, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation launched an investigation at the request of a district attorney coming into the case at the request of another district attorney with a conflict.
Gregory McMichael, 64, and son Travis, 34, were arrested on murder and aggravated assault charges shortly after Kemp commented Thursday. A GBI news release said Arbery, 25, was shot by Travis McMichael. Gregory McMichael previously told investigators he and his son suspected Arbery was a burglar.
GBI Director Vic Reynolds said in a YouTube video Wednesday that under Georgia law his office could not start an investigation without a request from a district attorney. He said he called the night before and offered his agency's services to Liberty County, Georgia, District Attorney Tom Durden.
He assumed jurisdiction after the Glynn County, Georgia, DA recused due to a conflict, according to news reports. Reynolds said Durden immediately agreed.
Reynolds said he assigned the case to three experienced supervising agents.
"Our goal in every investigation is to seek the truth," he said. "I'm confident we'll do justice. I'm just as confident we'll do it the right way."
Reynolds asked for patience, although he acknowledged that was probably the last feeling the family had. Arbery's killing has generated the Twitter hashtag #JusticeForAhmaud.
After the arrests, Crump issued a statement saying, "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," he added.
Crump has a national civil rights practice with offices in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, California and the District of Columbia.
"This outrageous case shows just how dangerous it is to be Black in America," Crump said in a statement before the arrests. "A Black man can't jog through a neighborhood without being chased and gunned down execution style. The case is clear: Ahmaud was the victim of horrific violence at the hands of two white men, a father and a son, who profiled him solely on his race."
Trayvon Martin, 17, was killed in 2012 by neighborhood watch member George Zimmerman, who called police to report a suspicious person shortly before the shooting. Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges.
Crump settled the family's civil suit against the homeowner association reportedly for more than $1 million, and Martin's parents became active in the Black Lives Matter movement.
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