3 men charged with federal hate crimes in shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia
Three Georgia men have been charged with hate crimes and attempted kidnapping in connection to the 2020 killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man.
A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Georgia indicted the men Wednesday.
Arbery was jogging alone Feb. 23 in Brunswick, Georgia, when two white men, Travis McMichael, 35, and his father, Gregory McMichael, 65, confronted him, claiming he was a thief. Travis McMichael shot Arbery three times with a shotgun, according to police.
No arrests were made until May, when video of the deadly encounter surfaced online.
Another man, William “Roddie” Bryan, recorded that video and allegedly acted as an accomplice to the McMichaels. The indictment alleges that while McMichael and his father chased Arbery through the Satilla Shores neighborhood in their truck, yelling and brandishing guns, Bryan “joined the chase and used his truck to cut off Arbery’s route.”
Both McMichaels and Bryan were charged Wednesday on counts of interference with rights, and attempted kidnapping, according to the Department of Justice.
Travis and Gregory McMichael are each facing an additional charge of “using, carrying, and brandishing — and in Travis’s case, discharging — a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.”
The father and son were previously indicted June 24 on state charges in Glynn County, including four counts of felony murder, malice murder, two counts of aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.
Bryan was also indicted on state charges of felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.
The Arbery killing spurred Georgia lawmakers to pass a state hate crime law in June 2020, The Associated Press reported, allowing additional charges to be brought in cases where the victim’s race, gender, religion or other factors made them a target, or in some way motivated the crime.
However, because the law passed months after Arbery was killed, his attackers faced no hate crime charges from the state.
This story was originally published April 28, 2021 at 6:37 PM.