A father and son were caught on camera in a confrontation that resulted in the killing of jogger Ahmaud Arbery and were later charged with murder, according to authorities.
Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, both of whom were wielding guns, confronted the jogger on February 23 on a street in Georgia. Eventually, Travis shot Arbery dead, as per the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The father and son were also charged with aggravated assault, according to authorities. The McMichaels were under police custody from Thursday night and will be transferred to Glynn County Jail.
The short video shows Travis and Gregory approach Ahmaud in their vehicle before firing rounds.
Travis leaves the truck and starts fighting with Ahmaud who is blasted by a shotgun and tries to keep his balance while running away before crumbling to the ground.
The Arbery family’s lawyer, S. Lee Merritt, called the shooting a “modern-day lynching,” and said Ahmaud’s relatives want justice to be served. Wanda Cooper-Jones, Ahmaud’s devastated mother, told ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ that she is still trying to figure out why exactly this happened to her son.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be in a mental state where I can actually watch the video,” she said. “I had others that watched it that shared what they saw and that just was enough.”
The father and son told police officers they engaged Ahmaud because they thought he was a thief that had been making rounds in the neighborhood.
Before the incident, the police were called two times. One of the calls came from Gregory, as per The Daily Mail. The calls give out small details about the situation.
“Hello, er, I’m out here in Satilla Shores,” Gregory said during the call. “There’s a black male running down the street.”
He then says “Goddam it, c’mon, Travis.”
Afterward, no response can be heard from the caller even though the call lasts 4 minutes and 45 seconds, despite police asking, “Hello, where you at?” according to the report.
In another call to a nonemergency police number made before the shooting, an unknown man reports a burglary in the area.
“There’s a guy in the house right now, a house under construction,” he says.
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The home he refers to is located around 500 yards from the home of the father and son.
Later on, the caller tells the dispatcher, “He’s running down the street.”
The officer then says:
“OK, that’s fine,
I’ll get them out there. I just need to know what he was doing wrong?”
According to the caller, the robber had been seen around the neighborhood before and had
“been caught on the camera a bunch before at night. It’s kind of an ongoing thing.”
See NBC’s report on the story in the video below.
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