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Georgia AG asks US Justice Dept to probe killing of black jogger
Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was killed on February 23 as he ran on a sunny day in a residential neighborhood in the town of Brunswick. Two white men were arrested and charged for his shooting just last week.
What you need to know:
- The two white men were identified by police as Travis McMichael, 34, and his father Gregory McMichael, 64, who both live in Brunswick.
The Georgia state attorney general on Sunday asked the US Department of Justice to investigate the handling of an unarmed black jogger's killing, which sparked outrage across the country.
Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was killed on February 23 as he ran on a sunny day in a residential neighborhood in the town of Brunswick. Two white men were arrested and charged for his shooting just last week.
"I have formally requested US DOJ (@SDGAnews) to conduct an investigation into the handling of the case," Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr tweeted, linking to an official statement.
In the statement, Carr said his office is "committed to a complete and transparent review of how the Ahmaud Arbery case was handled from the outset."
"The family, the community and the state of Georgia deserve answers," Carr said in the statement.
According to the statement, the request "includes, but is not limited to, investigation of the communications and discussions by and between" the district attorneys' offices for the Brunswick judicial circuit and the Waycross judicial circuit -- both were involved in the original case.
Arbery's case gained national notoriety last week with the release of a 28-second cell phone video that captured the shooting.
Wanda Cooper-Jones (R), mother of Ahmaud Arbery, weeps while people gather to honor her son at Sidney Lanier Park on May 9, 2020 in Brunswick, Georgia. Arbery was shot and killed while jogging in the nearby Satilla Shores neighborhood on February 23.
In the footage, Arbery is seen running down a residential street and approaching a white pickup truck stopped in the right lane with a man standing in the back.
As Arbery is seen trying to get around the vehicle, he is confronted by a second man holding a shotgun. An altercation between the two ensues and the firing of three shots can be heard.
The two white men were identified by police as Travis McMichael, 34, and his father Gregory McMichael, 64, who both live in Brunswick. They were arrested on Thursday and charged with murder and aggravated assault.
According to the February police report, Gregory McMichael told officers he thought Arbery was a suspect in a series of area burglaries and that he had seen the young black man "hauling ass" down the street.
McMichael said he went inside and got his .357 Magnum while his son grabbed a shotgun. When they finally caught up with Arbery and Travis McMichael got out of the truck with the shotgun, Arbery began to "violently attack" him, the father said, according to the police report.
The father said he saw his son shoot Arbery and Arbery fall to the ground.
The footage of the shooting sent shockwaves across the United States and prompted a number of celebrities to call for action, including basketball star LeBron James and actress Zoe Kravitz.
The two white men were identified by police as Travis McMichael, 34, and his father Gregory McMichael, 64, who both live in Brunswick.
Some people drew parallels between this case and the shooting death of another unarmed young black man, Trayvon Martin, by a neighborhood guard in Florida in 2012.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms described Arbery's killing as a "lynching."
"It's heartbreaking that it's 2020 and this was a lynching of an African American man," Bottoms told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" on Sunday.
On Friday, GBI director Vic Reynolds told a news conference that "there is more than sufficient probable cause" to charge the McMichaels with murder but did not explain why it took 74 days for the suspects to be detained.
He added that the investigation was ongoing and there could be more arrests.
