The Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested Gregory and Travis McMichael on Thursday for the February 23 murder of Ahmaud Arbery. The arrest came days after the surface of a video showing the shooting.
The video depicts Arbery, a 25-year old black man, jogging when a white truck stops in front of him. The video shows Arbery jogging around the truck as one man, white, stands in the bed of the pickup truck and another, also white, stands by the driver’s side door. Arbery briefly disappears from view and one shot is heard. Then, one man appears to be wrestling with Arbery as the other stands in the bed of the truck; two more shots can be heard.
In the police report, Gregory McMichael claimed that there were several break-ins in the neighborhood and he believed Arbery was a suspect. The Brunswick News, however, reported that there was only one burglary between January 1 and February 23.
The case is on its third prosecutor after the first two recused themselves from the case because they had professional ties with Gregory McMichael. Gregory McMichael recently retired after a career as an investigator with the district attorney’s office in Brunswick, and before that was an officer with the Glynn County Police Department.
In a letter to Captain Jump of the Glynn County Police Department, District Attorney George Barnhill simultaneously recused himself from the case and concluded that there was insufficient probable cause to issue arrest warrants for Travis and Gregory McMichael.
Current prosecutor Tom Durden said the case should go before a grand jury once the state of Georgia lifts the restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The current restrictions are active through June 12.