3 men charged with federal hate crimes in killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia
Ahmaud Arbery #AhmaudArbery
Three Georgia men previously charged in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery were indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury and charged with hate crimes and attempted kidnapping.
Arbery was jogging in Brunswick, Georgia, when Travis McMichael, 35, and his father, Gregory McMichael, 65, pursued him in their truck and shot him dead on Feb. 23, 2020.
William “Roddie” Bryan, 51, who was driving behind them in a separate truck, filmed the shooting.
Later, Gregory McMichael, a retired police officer, leaked the video because he wanted “the public to know the truth,” his attorney said in 2020.
The Department of Justice alleged on Wednesday that the men confronted Arbery “because of his race.”
The incident sparked outrage and spurred an international movement to draw attention to racism against Black runners, NBC News reported.
Travis and Gregory were also each charged with “carrying, and brandishing—and in Travis’s case, discharging—a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence,” the DOJ said in a press release.
Gregory and Travis, father and son, were previously each charged with murder in May 2020 for the death of Arbery.