[ Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was on his regular run through Brunswick,
Georgia, when he encountered an armed white father and son. ]
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AHMAUD ARBERY: ANGER MOUNTS OVER KILLING OF BLACK JOGGER CAUGHT ON
VIDEO   [[link removed]]

 

Khushbu Shah
May 6, 2020
The Guardian
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_ Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was on his regular run through Brunswick,
Georgia, when he encountered an armed white father and son. _

Ahmaud Arbery was shot dead in February but it was only after the
release of a video of the incident that it was announced that Gregory
and Travis McMichael would face a grand jury. , Photograph: Twitter

 

On a sun-speckled, tree-lined street on a sunny Sunday
afternoon, Ahmaud Arbery
[[link removed]] ran through his
neighborhood in the coastal town of Brunswick, Georgia. Neighbors had
seen him run by their homes every day for years.

One of them was Lauren Bennett, 26, who says running was what Arbery
was known for around their Fancy Bluff neighborhood in Brunswick. Her
security camera would ping into her phone as he raced by each day.

“Yup, there goes Ahmaud,” she told the Guardian, recalling his
bouts of exercise. She’d heard he used to wave to another neighbor
on his daily runs.

It should just have been another ordinary run for the 25-year-old
Arbery back in February. But a series of events unfolded that ended in
his brutal killing at the hands of two white men, which has caused
anger across America and especially among black Americans and
campaigners for social justice.

Now, as Bennett watches the video of how his last run through her
neighborhood ended in his death, she cries.

That sorrow – and rage – has spread through Georgia
[[link removed]] and the rest
of the US, and has reignited a long-running debate over the killings
of young black men by white people. It was sparked by a 36-second
video released online months after that late February run – a video
that shed new light on how Arbery was killed. In the film, an
unidentified person in a car films Arbery jogging towards a white
truck parked on the road, where two men stand: one in the bed of the
truck and another just to its side.

One shot rings out as Arbery disappears off camera, swerving around
the truck. Then another. Another shot rings out as Arbery struggles
back into frame as yet another shot is heard. Finally, he falls to the
ground.

Before police made it to Arbery, he was already dead.

According to a police report, the two men, Gregory McMichael, 64, and
his son, Travis McMichael, 34, had grabbed their weapons, a .357
Magnum revolver and a shotgun, jumped into a truck and began following
Arbery after seeing him run by.

In the video, it appears Arbery is running in the moments leading up
to his death.

WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO

 Footage shows fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia.

The two men involved in the incident have not been charged or arrested
over Arbery’s death, but the case will now go to a grand jury
following the release of the video and the condemnation that it
produced, according to a statement from the district attorney in
charge, Tom Durden.

This month, the state chapter of the NAACP visited Arbery’s family,
calling for an end to race-based discrimination in Brunswick, a
majority African American city. Tuesday evening, its local
chapter called for swift action
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urging arrests to be made in the case and the immediate dismissal of
the Glynn county police chief.

“This is murder,” wrote Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney who
is representing Arbery’s mother, in a statement posted to Facebook.

Arbery’s mother has been unable to watch the video that now has over
4 million views and has drawn condemnation from prominent figures
across the country, including the former vice-president and 2020
Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

The McMichaels, according to numerous reports, argue they were abiding
by Georgia’s stand-your-ground statute, a similar defense to that
used by security guard George Zimmerman in the killing of black
teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida.

Arbery’s death is one of dozens of killings of black boys and men
across America, who have been shot in their communities often while
engaging in everyday activities. Tamir Rice was killed at a playground
in Ohio; Terence Crutcher slain while being pulled over by police; and
Walter Scott shot dead in Louisiana leaving a convenience store.

L Chris Stewart, an Atlanta-based civil rights attorney who has
represented a number of families like Arbery’s, has a close
relationship with the lawyer representing Arbery’s mother. The two
have spoken about what happened to Arbery. When Stewart first heard
what happened, he thought to himself, “I jog and I live in a
predominantly white neighborhood now. And, you know, if someone
suspects you’re a criminal because you’re black, then this is
going to turn into the Wild Wild West.”

Glynn county, where Brunswick sits, has a history of controversy in
its police departments. Last year, a former county police officer was
indicted
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Initially, the prosecutors involved with the case chose not to press
charges against the elder McMichael and his son. Documents and state
records show the older McMichael is a former police detective
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attorney investigator
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Glynn county.

“It’s a really corrupt police department,” Stewart said.

On Tuesday night, more than two months after Arbery was shot in the
middle of the street, the Georgia bureau of investigations announced
the Glynn county police had not asked them to investigate the
shooting, but rather, looked into threats against those involved in
the investigation.

The state’s governor and attorney general spoke out after the video
was released on Tuesday. “I expect justice to be carried out as
swiftly as possible,” the attorney general, Chris Carr, said in a
statement.

On Tuesday evening, Bennett saw dozens of people coming to and from a
protest in front of the McMichaels’ home. On Wednesday, protest
[[link removed]]ers
gathered
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Atlanta at the state capitol.

“I don’t know what’s going on through the McMichaels’ heads,
and if they think the black community is shaken. But all races are
hurt. We’re all upset,” Bennett said.

But she was not surprised this happened in Brunswick – or anywhere
in America.

“There’s just racism, honestly. To me, it’s never gonna die.”

The Guardian has published an edited version of the video after
Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Arbery’s father, said the family
consented to its public dissemination.

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