Two Georgia commissioners have accused the district attorney of blocking the arrests of two men in connection to the death of Ahmaud Arbery.
Arbery was fatally shot on Feb. 23 after he was confronted by two white men while out on a run near the city of Brunswick. Neither man was charged after the incident until a video of his death emerged publicly, which resulted in the arrests Thursday. Two Glynn County commissioners have accused District Attorney Jackie Johnson of barring the Glynn County Police Department from making the arrests.
Johnson recused herself days after the shooting given that Greg McMichael, one of the alleged perpetrators, once worked in her office, but that didn’t happen until after she allegedly helped her former coworker.
“The police at the scene went to her, saying they were ready to arrest both of them. These were the police at the scene who had done the investigation,” Commissioner Allen Booker told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “She shut them down to protect her friend McMichael.”
Commissioner Peter Murphy issued a similar statement, saying that officers at the scene believed they had probable cause to arrest Greg McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis McMichael, 34, and reached out to Johnson’s office to let them know, but “they were told not to make the arrest,” according to Murphy.
In addition to Johnson recusing herself, the next district attorney did the same. Tom Durden, the third district attorney to have the case, is currently overseeing it.
Some people have questioned why it took for the video gaining national attention for an arrest to be made.
Greg McMichael claimed that he saw Arbery running through the neighborhood and believed he looked like a suspect in a string of burglaries in the area, so he and his son armed themselves and followed him. The elder McMichael told police that Arbery “violently attacked” his son and tried to steal his shotgun before Arbery was shot and killed.
