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Three men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old African-American man from Georgia, were sentenced to life in prison on January 7, 2022, nearly two years after the fatal shooting incident.
In February 2020, Arbery was jogging in the Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick in Glynn County, Georgia, United States, when he was chased by three Caucasian men in a vehicle, Travis McMichael and his father Gregory, and their neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan, on suspicion of burglary.
The victim had a sudden physical altercation with Travis after the latter wielded a shotgun and was fatally shot in the process. Following several months of trial, Travis and Gregory were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, while William was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 30 years.
Judge Timothy Walmsley dubbed the incident "chilling and truly disturbing” and empathized with the deceased man:
"When I thought about this, I thought from a lot of different angles. And I kept coming back to the terror that must have been in the mind of the young man running through Satilla Shores."
Prior to announcing the sentence, Judge Walmsley called for a minute of silence to represent “a fraction of the time Ahmaud Arbery was running" through the neighborhood of Satilla Shores outside Brunswick before he was shot dead.
A look into the Ahmaud Arbery’s tragic shooting incident
On February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery was chased by Travis and Gregory McMichael in a vehicle around the Satilla Shores neighborhood in Brunswick. A third man, William Bryan, also joined the pursuit in a separate vehicle.
The trio cornered the 25-year-old in pickup trucks before Travis got out of the vehicle and wielded a shotgun towards Arbery. The two struggled over the weapon and Travis shot Arbery on the spot. Meanwhile, William stood aside and filmed the shooting on his phone.
The victim was found with three gunshot wounds and pronounced dead at the scene. The McMichaels said they suspected Arbery was involved in a string of burglary incidents reported around the Satilla Shores neighborhood and attempted to conduct a citizen’s arrest.
Bryan told authorities that he joined the chase independently and tried to corner the victim with his vehicle five times but was unsure about Arbery’s involvement in any wrongdoing. No evidence was found to corroborate the claims made by the McMichaels.
Ahmaud Arbery was only seen entering an under-construction house with no doors five times in five months, even shortly before his death. However, no instances of theft were recorded on the security camera installed inside the house.
Larry English Jr, the owner of the house, confirmed that the victim never disturbed or damaged his property during the visit and clarified that he did authorize the McMichaels to investigate the matter.
During the initial testimony, the defendants claimed that they acted in self-defense as Arbery attempted to grab Travis’ gun. However, prosecutors deemed the incident to be a racially motivated hate crime.
The case garnered national interest when a 36-second video clip documenting the shooting surfaced on social media, nearly two months after the tragic incident. In the video, the McMichaels were seen chasing Arbery before confronting him in the middle of the road.
Following a brief physical altercation, a gunshot was heard as the McMichaels moved away from the frame. Two more gunshots were heard before the victim was seen drenched in blood, stumbling and falling in the streets.
The video caused a mass outcry within the country. Amidst widespread hysteria, the public berated authorities for making no arrests in relation to the incident.
Meanwhile, a post-mortem examination revealed that Ahmaud Arbery suffered “two gunshot wounds in his chest” and “one gunshot graze wound on the inside of one of his wrists.”
Ahmaud Arbery murder case: Trial and verdict in brief
On May 7, 2020, Gregory and Travis McMichael were arrested on charges of “murder and aggravated assault.” On May 21, 2020, William Bryan was arrested on charges of “felony murder and criminal attempt to commit a felony.”
During a preliminary hearing on June 4, 2020, GBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Richard Dial testified Travis McMichael used a racial slur after killing Arbery. On June 24, 2020, the accused were indicted on “malice and felony murder charges.”
Additionally, the McMichaels faced other charges, including “aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.” Bryan also faced a charge of “criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.”
The suspects pled not guilty to the charges in July 2020 but the court denied bonds for all three. In November 2021, Gregory, Travis, and Williams were found guilty of “murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal intent to commit a felony.”
Prosecutors mentioned racism as a key factor behind the case and lead prosecutor Linda Dunikoski shared that the suspects only acted based on their “assumptions” instead of actual evidence:
"All three of these defendants did everything they did based on assumptions - not on facts, not on evidence."
During the closing arguments on November 22, 2021, Dunikoski said that the defendants detained Arbery "without legal authority" as he was a “black man running down the street". Meanwhile, defendants attempted to uphold their arguments on grounds of self-defense and citizen’s arrest.
A jury consisting of nine Caucasian women, two Caucasian men and one African-American man conducted over 11 hours of deliberation over eight days and heard from 23 witnesses.
As per the latest hearing, Travis McMichael was found guilty of all charges including “malice murder, four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, one count of false imprisonment and one count of criminal attempt to commit a felony.”
His father Gregory was also convicted on all counts except "malice murder” while Bryan was found guilty of all charges except “malice murder, one felony murder count and one aggravated assault count.”
The accused has been sentenced to lifetime imprisonment, with only Bryan granted a possibility of parole in 30 years. However, defense attorneys have said they have decided to appeal the verdict.
Ahmaud Arbery’s mother has also filed a civil lawsuit against the men and law enforcement officials who declined to arrest the suspects. Following the Arbery shooting incident, Georgia enacted new bipartisan hate crimes legislation.
In the wake of the shooting, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp also repealed the age-old citizen’s arrest law and replaced it with a new legislation allowing only licensed private detectives, security guards, shopkeepers and restaurant employees to conduct arrest “under specific circumstances.”
