Ahmaud Arbery was killed doing what he loved, and a south Georgia community demands justice
Written by laserteam on May 7, 2020
Glynn County, Georgia (CNN)Though a prosecutor says he’ll let a grand jury decide whether the man who killed Ahmaud Arbery will face charges, many in this south Georgia community can’t understand why no one’s been arrested.
It’s been more than 10 weeks since the shooting, and Arbery’s supporters feel their outrage would’ve been louder had coronavirus restrictions not curtailed their protests.
On Tuesday, days after the state eased its stay-at-home order, demonstrators converged on the Satilla Shores neighborhood where Arbery was killed.
“You want to chase somebody down? We got over 100 bodies out here. Chase us down,” said a man leading the demonstration. “We’re a community. We’re not going to keep allowing this to go on in Glynn County.
“They demanded to know what the 25-year-old did to deserve being pursued by armed civilians and killed on a Sunday afternoon.
One of the armed men was Greg McMichael. He used to work for the Glynn County Police Department, which has not made an arrest in the case. He also worked for one of the two district attorneys’ offices that have recused themselves.
McMichael, 64, told police that his son, Travis, 34, shot Arbery, whom they suspected in a string of burglaries, after Arbery attacked him as he stood in the road with a shotgun, according to a police report.
Arbery family attorney S. Lee Merritt counters that the McMichaels, who are white, saw a black man jogging through their neighborhood, assumed the worst, and tracked him down and killed him. They should be arrested immediately, Merritt said.
