Father and son accused in Ahmaud Arbery shooting arrested

A white father and son accused of fatally shooting of 25-year-old black jogger Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia earlier this year have been arrested, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI). 

The GBI announced Thursday evening that Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, will be booked into the Glynn County Jail on charges of murder and aggravated assault.

Arbery was killed Feb. 23 just outside the port city of Brunswick, Ga., after two men allegedly chased him in a pickup claiming that they thought he was burglar responsible for a series of break-ins in the area.

Authorities said Travis McMichael shot Arbery during the exchange.

The arrests come the day before Arbery’s 26th birthday.

Gregory McMichael served as an investigator for Glynn County District Attorney Jackie Johnson. He retired last year but the connection led Johnson to recuse herself from the case to avoid a conflict of interest

Footage shared by an attorney representing Arbery’s family, Lee Merritt, appears to show Arbery struggling with one of the men outside the truck shortly before his death.

After a second jurisdiction also recused itself over potential conflicts of interest, Atlantic Judicial Circuit District Attorney Tom Durden, who is working with the GBI, announced Tuesday that he would present the case to a grand jury.

This week a video that apparently shows the men pursuing and shooting Arbery renewed calls for their prosecution, with the Georgia NAACP decrying the “slothfulness and inaction” of the two DA’s offices and several lawmakers calling for action. 

Arbery’s shooting quickly became a subject on campaign trails.

Both Republican Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler and her primary opponent Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) spoke out about Arbery’s killing. 

Collins, who leads in most polls in the race, called the video “disturbing and wrong,” while Loeffler called for a “swift and immediate” probe into the shooting. Former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden called for an investigation as well.

Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and former Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro, one of the many progressive voices denouncing the handling of the shooting, called the arrests “a very delayed first step.”

“Let’s turn that outrage into a sustained push for change,” he tweeted. “Something like this should never happen.”

A very delayed first step. As this trial proceeds, let’s not forget the outrage we felt at the lack of justice for Ahmaud.

Let’s turn that outrage into a sustained push for change. Something like this should never happen. https://t.co/fns7U0LMmj

— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) May 8, 2020