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Ahmaud Arbery’s family attorney slams the release of past police body cam video.
6 min read
Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents executed a warrant to search the home of the men charged with the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, almost three months after the shooting.
Gregory and Travis McMichael were arrested and charged on May 7 after cellphone video of the chase and killing of Arbery, taken by William Bryan, was leaked onto social media two days earlier.
The 28-second video showed Arbery jogging as Travis McMichael stood outside of a white pickup truck armed with a shotgun and Gregory McMichael, a former police officer stood in the truck’s open flatbed trunk holding a. 357 magnum.
The McMichaels, who are white, went after Arbery, who is African American, after they suspected him of committing “several break-ins” in their Satilla Shores neighborhood, according to police reports.
The video shows Arbery and Travis McMichael tussling with the shotgun before three shots are fired.
Arbery, 25, stumbled and fell to the ground where he was pronounced dead on Feb. 23.
The McMichaels have been held without bail in a Glynn County jail as GBI continues their investigation.
A spokeswoman with GBI confirmed in a statement that the agency executed a search warrant at the home of the McMichaels. However, the father and son live in separate homes within the Satilla Shores neighborhood.
Travis McMichael lives on Satilla Drive while Gregory McMichael lives on River Ridge Road, police reports show.
A local reporter from WSB’s Channel 2’s Action News was present on Tuesday around 7 p.m. when the agents searched the Satilla Drive home and backyard. It didn’t appear that GBI agents collected any evidence, according to the report.
Requests for comment from both of the McMichaels’ attorneys about the search warrant were not immediately returned. Their attorneys have maintained their innocence in previous statements. Travis McMichael’s attorney Robert G. Rubin asked that “no one rush to judgment, and to allow the legal process to run its course.”
“No further details are being released at this time due to the active and ongoing case,” the GBI spokeswoman said in a statement.
Since the McMichaels’ arrests, several videos have been released regarding the investigation including footage inside the construction site where Arbery was accused by the McMichaels of breaking into on the day of his death.
On the same day investigators executed the search warrant, S. Lee Merritt — one of the attorneys for the Arbery family — slammed an unrelated police body camera video that was released on Monday by The Guardian that showed Arbery being questioned by a Glynn County police officer and had a stun gun fired at him by another officer.
“Time and again the cycle of information and video from previous encounters with police are released. This time Ahmaud was relaxing in a Brunswick park on Nov 7th, 2017 morning when he was aggressively questioned by two officers,” said Merritt in a statement. “The releases are deliberate distractions from the murder case.”
A separate video from December 2017 released Tuesday on Storyful, showed Arbery getting arrested by Glynn County police for allegedly shoplifting a television.
“They continue to release images attempting to criminalize Ahmaud Arbery, the victim. When the criminals remain [to be] William Bryan, Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael,” said Merritt in a video posted on his Instagram account.
Bryan has not been charged in connection with Arbery’s death.
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