The Justice Department is investigating the death of an unarmed black man in Georgia as a hate crime, an attorney for Ahmaud Arbery’s family said.
Arbery, 25, was fatally shot after two white men chased him down while he was jogging on Feb. 23.
Attorney S. Lee Merritt told CNN he learned about the development after meeting with U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia Bobby Christine on Thursday. In a separate statement, Merritt said the Arbery family and their legal team met with the Justice Department last week when Christine said his office was also “investigating why it took so long to arrest the individuals responsible for Mr. Arbery’s death.”
“This would involve the consideration of both civil and criminal charges against state officials and other conspirators involved in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery,” he said.
Statement from S. Lee Merritt, Benjamin Crump and L. Chris Stewart, attorneys for the mother and father of Ahmaud Arbery, regarding a meeting held between the family, their legal team and the Dept. of Justice last week: pic.twitter.com/LwxXS4qywP
— S. Lee Merritt, Esq. (@MeritLaw) May 25, 2020
Arbery and one of the white men, Travis McMichael, struggled over McMichael’s gun, and Arbery was shot three times. Gregory McMichael, who was with his son at the time of the killing, told police Arbery attacked his son.
The killing prompted national outrage after video of the shooting emerged in early May. The father and son were not arrested until after the release of the video on May 7. They face charges of felony murder and aggravated assault.
William “Roddie” Bryan Jr., the man who recorded the shooting, was arrested last week on murder charges.
Merritt said Arbery’s family left last week’s meeting “feeling satisfied” the Justice Department “would do their part to fully investigate all players involved in this murder and that they would hold those responsible accountable.”
Georgia is one of four states with no hate crimes statute on the books. The DOJ had previously indicated it was weighing federal hate crime charges in the case earlier this month.
