Georgia Father and Son Arrested After Publication of Ahmaud Arbery Shooting Video
Richard Moorhead
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A Georgia father and son have been arrested after the publication of a video depicting a shooting the two men were involved in. Gregory and Travis McMichael were arrested at their home in Brunswick, Georgia on Friday night.
The McMichaels had been involved in the shooting of an area man named Ahmaud Arbery in February, video of which was recently published and inspired demands for the men’s arrest. The McMichaels confronted Arbery in their neighborhood on the basis of several burglaries that had occurred in the area. During an interaction in which the armed men attempted to perform a citizens’ arrest on Arbery, an altercation ensued in which Arbery was shot and killed.
The video of the incident only became public earlier this week, and depicts a confrontation in detail. The McMichaels had been initially cleared of criminal repercussions by a Glynn County prosecutor, who argued the men were engaging in a legal citizens’ arrest of a criminal suspect. Critics of the McMichaels have accused them of reckless and belligerent vigilantism, accosting a jogger who was unarmed in their neighborhood with a shotgun and a .357 revolver.
Graphic video of the incident can be seen here.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation began its own investigation into the incident following the publication of the video on Tuesday, which contrasted with alleged original police claims that Arbery had been shot and killed inside a residence during an attempted burglary.
The men have been arrested on suspicion of murder and alleged assault. A photojournalist presence outside the McMichaels’ home showed the two men being arrested by a sizable detachment of armed law enforcement.
Tenative trial proceedings involving the McMichaels will shed additional detail on the men’s basis to conduct a probable cause citizen’s arrest on Arbery, and the intricacies of the altercation between Travis McMichael and Arbery that led to the latters’ death.
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