Three men have been indicted on murder charges in the death of Ahmaud Arbery.
Greg McMichael, 64, his son, Travis McMichael, 34, and William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. were indicted by a grand jury on charges including malice and felony murder, Joyette Holmes, the district attorney of Cobb County, announced Wednesday. The indictment charged them with nine counts: malice murder, four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment, according to Axios.
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Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was shot to death on Feb. 23 after he was confronted by the McMichaels, two white men who claimed at the time that they were trying to conduct a citizen’s arrest because they believed Arbery was the suspect involved in a series of local robberies.
“This is another step forward in seeking justice for Ahmaud. Our team from the Cobb Judicial Circuit has been committed to effectively bringing forward the evidence in this case, and today was no exception,” said Holmes in a news release. “It has been an effort of many agencies, including the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice, who have worked together to get to this point. We will continue to be intentional in the pursuit of justice for this family and the community at large as the prosecution of this case continues.”
The father and son were not arrested until May, shortly after the video footage taken by Bryan was released.
The elder McMichael was a police officer but had his law enforcement privileges revoked in February 2019 after a multitude of infractions dating back to 2005. He and other officials in the district attorney’s office signed a memo at that time in which he agreed to give up his badge and weapon and was reclassified as a nonsworn employee.
Greg McMichael’s ties to the law enforcement community in Brunswick, Georgia, has complicated the prosecution of the case. Multiple district attorneys who had been assigned to the case were accused of hampering the investigation before ultimately recusing themselves.
Arbery’s death has been compared to the deaths of other unarmed black people, most notably Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
Taylor, 26, was an emergency medical technician who was asleep in her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment when officers used a no-knock warrant to enter her home after midnight in March. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, said he heard someone breaking into the apartment and grabbed his gun to fire a warning shot to stop the unknown intruders, hitting one of the responding officers in the leg.
The officers responded by shooting several shots into the apartment. Taylor was struck eight times and died of her injuries.
One of the three officers involved has been fired. None have faced charges.
Floyd, 46, died on Memorial Day after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
The officer who pressed a knee to Floyd’s neck, Derek Chauvin, was fired from the department and has been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The three other officers who were involved in detaining Floyd, who was suspected of using a fake $20 bill, were also fired and charged with aiding and abetting murder.
In the wake of their deaths, protesters around the country have sought to raise awareness about systemic racism and police brutality against nonwhite people. Some activists have called for abolishing the police, but observers say the “defund the police” movement is more about shrinking law enforcement budgets and shifting funds over to mental healthcare, affordable housing, and other services.
