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(CNN) - Although a prosecutor says he will let an investigative jury decide whether the man who killed Ahmaud Arbery will face charges, many in a southern Georgia community cannot understand why no one has been arrested.
More than 10 weeks have passed since the shooting, and supporters of the Arbery case feel that their outrage would have been stronger if coronavirus restrictions had not lessened their protests.
On Tuesday, days after the state relaxed the containment measure, protesters gathered in the Satilla Shores neighborhood where Arbery was killed.
"Do you want to chase someone? We have over 100 bodies here. Follow us, ”said a man in front of the demonstration. “We are a community. We are not going to continue to allow this to continue in Glynn County. ”
They demanded to know what the 25-year-old did to deserve to be chased by armed civilians and killed on a Sunday afternoon.
One of the armed men was Greg McMichael. He used to work for the Glynn County Police Department, which has not made an arrest in the case. He also worked for one of the two district attorney's offices that have been inhibited from the investigation.
McMichael, 64, told police that his son, Travis, 34, shot Arbery, who they suspected was the perpetrator in a series of robberies, after Arbery attacked him while standing on the street. with a shotgun, according to a police report.
Arbery's family attorney, S. Lee Merritt, replies that the McMichaels, who are white, saw a black man running through their neighborhood, assumed the worst, located him and killed him. They must be arrested immediately, Merritt said.
"I just need to know what I was doing wrong."
Arbery had run out, as he was known to do frequently. The former high school football fan often jogged through neighborhoods southwest of Brunswick, those who knew him say.
However, on February 23, he was seen as a threat, a thief. Someone in Satilla Shores called 911 to say "a black man running down the street," Arbery, could be responsible for a series of robberies.
"There have been robberies here. There is a guy in a house right now. It's a house under construction, ”said the caller, whose name is censored on the 911 tape.
"It's okay. I'll take them out (to the agents), ”says the operator. "I just need to know what I was doing wrong. Was he alone on the premises and wasn't he supposed to be? "
The caller responds, “You have been caught on camera a lot earlier in the night. It's kind of a continuous thing here. ”
Within minutes, three explosions erupted from Travis McMichael's shotgun, and Arbery was dead on the street.
"They gave no answer for (the 911 operator's question)," Merritt said earlier this week. "They said, 'It's a black man running our way.'"
Greg McMichael's former employer declined to press charges, but District Attorney Tom Durden, the third prosecutor in the case, said Tuesday that he would present the evidence to an investigative jury once the state's coronavirus restrictions are lifted.
Durden's decision came after a radio station posted (and deleted) a video that appears to show the confrontation between Travis McMichael and Arbery.
The alleged series of robberies
Greg McMichael told Glynn County Police that Arbery was suspected in "various robberies," but a series of crimes were not reported in the weeks leading up to the shooting. Police have not yet clarified whether Arbery is charged with a crime in a house that was being built.
The owner of the house under construction, who is listed as a victim in the police incident report, said his surveillance system captured at least four short clips of a man who appeared to be Arbery "arriving on his property" on February 23. He declined to share them with CNN and spoke on condition of anonymity because he says he has been receiving death threats.
The man walked through the garage and down a dock on the Little Satilla River, motion-activated cameras show, according to the owner. When asked if they showed the man stealing or committing any other crime, he said they showed him a sample of "trespassing" of property.
"I'm sorry for the family, and this is a very bad situation," he said, before abruptly ending Tuesday's call after what sounded like an explosion of gunfire that coincided with the arrival of a CNN team in the neighborhood.
Before the Arbery shooting, the man said in a second interview on Wednesday, cameras three or four times captured someone walking through the property at night, once stealing $ 2,500 of fishing tackle from a boat on his garage, but could not Identify the author.
He did not file a police report, he said, but called the incident "puzzling and disturbing."
In the more than seven weeks before the shooting, there was only one report of burglary in the neighborhood, said Glynn County Police Lt. Cheri Bashlor.
A 9mm pistol was stolen Jan. 1 from a truck outside the McMichaels' home, he said.
CNN's attempts to reach Travis McMichael were unsuccessful. Greg McMichael declined to comment because it is under investigation.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation and investigative jury to evaluate case
Questions about the alleged robberies and other elements of the case prompted protesters to Satilla Shores on Tuesday night. They chanted: "I run with Maud!" - one of the young man's nicknames - and demanded justice, according to the images of WJAX, affiliate of CNN in Jacksonville.
Glynn County Sheriff E. Neal Jump, whose office has said he is not involved in the investigation, sympathized with the protesters, the video shows.
“Am I upset that it has taken a long time for the justice part to come? As the sheriff, I am upset. It shouldn't have taken that long. If that was my son, I would be upset, ”Jump said.
The protests came hours after Durden, who took over the case around April 13, said he would convene an investigative jury sometime after June 12, when the Supreme Court's covid-19 restrictions are lifted. of the state.
"I am of the opinion that the case should be brought before the Glynn County Investigative Jury to consider criminal charges against those involved in the death of Mr. Arbery," said the Durden statement.
Durden's office did not respond to multiple requests for comment from CNN.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) did not initially open an investigation because the Glynn County Police Department did not request the assistance of the office, although it did request assistance in investigating threats against the Police Department. Glynn County and the video's release Tuesday, according to the office.
Hours later, the GBI said Durden had formally requested an investigation into the Arbery murder.
Video captures a creepy confrontation
Shortly before Durden and GBI's announcements, a local radio personality released a video that appears to show the murder of Arbery. The captured events coincide with numerous accounts of the shooting, including, in many respects, that of Merritt, Waycross Judicial Circuit District Attorney George Barnhill, and, as reported in the police report, Greg McMichael. CNN has not verified who recorded the video.
The 36-second clip shows the end of the chase and shooting. It has sound, but only the shotgun blasts are clearly audible. The words of Arbery and McMichaels, if they exchanged words, cannot be heard. It is unclear what happened before the video starts or after it ends.
Taken from inside a vehicle behind Arbery, it starts with Arbery jogging down the middle of the street toward a pickup truck. Greg McMichael is in the back of the truck and his son, Travis, is standing near the hood, according to the Glynn County police report, which does not mention the video.
When Arbery approaches the truck, he veers into someone's yard to surround the truck blocking his way. When the truck passes, turn left and fight Travis McMichael for control of the shotgun.
Greg McMichael and his son, Travis, told police that they thought Arbery was a criminal.
A shot occurs, and the two men disappear from the left side of the screen when Arbery appears to throw a punch. Greg McMichael, still standing in the truck, pulls out a pistol but does not shoot.
A second off-screen shot is heard. When they return to sight of the image, both grabbing the shotgun, a third shot fires just as Arbery hits Travis McMichael's head.
Arbery backs off. Blood appears on his white T-shirt, below his left rib cage. He stumbles and falls face first into the street. Travis McMichael walks away, shotgun in hand, as his father runs towards Arbery with his pistol.
The first shot was through Arbery's right palm, consistent with Arbery gripping the barrel of the pistol, Barnhill wrote. The second shot is consistent with Travis McMichael “trying to pull Arbery's gun away as Arbery threw it at him. The third shot also appears to be in a fight for the gun, ”wrote the prosecutor.
Greg McMichael had blood on his hands when the police arrived, he observed a Glynn County police officer, who concluded in his report that the blood came from when Greg McMichael turned Arbery's body to search for weapons. The report does not say that any were found.
It was in self-defense, says the challenged prosecutor
Barnhill, the second prosecutor who dropped (inhibited) the case, said he did so only at the request of Arbery's mother. She claimed she had a conflict of interest, she wrote.
The district attorney's son is a prosecutorial investigator for the Brunswick Judicial Circuit, from whom Greg McMichael retired after serving in the Glynn County Police Department. (The Brunswick Circuit District Attorney was the first to recuse herself.)
Although Barnhill saw no conflict, he wrote, he agreed to recuse himself. In doing so, he wrote a letter on April 2 saying that the McMichaels and William Bryan, a third man involved as a witness in the police report, participated in a "manhunt" and had "solid probable cause first hand," being civilians, to arrest Arbery.
“It appears that his intention was to detain and hold this criminal suspect until the police arrived. Under Georgia law, this is perfectly legal, ”Barnhill wrote, citing the state code that civilians can arrest someone if they have immediate knowledge of a crime or if a perpetrator is trying to flee after committing a serious crime.
. @ GBI_GA Director Reynolds has offered resources & manpower to DA Durden to ensure a thorough, independent investigation into the death of #AhmaudArbery. Georgians deserve answers. State law enforcement stands ready to ensure justice is served. https://t.co/ktLiPf7LoY
- Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) May 6, 2020
Barnhill also questioned whether Arbery could have been responsible for the shots fired from the shotgun, and concluded that Travis McMichael "was allowed to use deadly force to protect himself," he wrote in the letter to Glynn County Police Captain Tom Jump.
"Arbery's mental health records and previous convictions help explain his apparent aggressive nature and his possible pattern of thinking to attack a gunman," Barnhill wrote, without elaborating.
Arbery's father, Marcus Arbery, denied that his son had mental health problems and told CNN: "There is nothing wrong with him." The Brunswick News reported that Arbery was charged with allegedly bringing a pistol to a 2013 high school basketball game when Arbery was 19, and the family's attorney acknowledged Arbery's arrest in 2018 on store robbery charges. .
"The reference to (...) alleged high school conduct or shoplifting is absurd and has nothing to do with his murder," Merritt said.
“The decision to trust the citizens' arrest statute is really a recent invention. Before that, they simply said it was in self-defense, ”added the Arbery family attorney. Ahmaud stopped at a house that was under construction and looked out the window. We don't know if that happened or not, but even if it happened, that is not a serious crime that would invoke the statute of citizen arrest. ”
"He was not armed," says the mother.
On the first 911 call, the caller says, “I am here at Satilla Shores. There's a black man running down the street, ”then says,“ Stop, ”and heads to“ Travis ”before the call ends after a few minutes of silence.
The aforementioned details of the thefts occurred on the second call to 911, in which the operator asked what Arbery had done wrong.
Greg McMichael told police he saw Arbery "dragging his butt" down the street, according to the report that the police provided to CNN, which lists five other witnesses but only provides the Greg McMichael version.
He grabbed his .357 Magnum and Travis grabbed his shotgun because they didn't know if Arbery had a gun, Greg McMichael told police. When they saw him "the other night," he told an investigator, Arbery reached into his pants like he was armed, according to the incident report.
Arbery with her mother, Wanda Cooper, who demands answers.
The father and son jumped into a van and tried to drive Arbery away, but Arbery ran in the other direction, at which point "Roddy", who appears to be William Bryan, according to Barnhill's account, tried unsuccessfully to block the road. from Arbery, the report says.
The McMichaels said to Arbery: “Stop, stop. We want to talk to you, ”according to the report, and“ stopped next to the man and yelled at him to stop again at which point Travis got out of the truck with a shotgun. ”
Arbery "started violently attacking" Travis McMichael, his father told police. As they fought, shots were fired and Arbery "fell face down on the sidewalk with his hand under his body," the report says.
CNN's attempts to contact Bryan were unsuccessful.
When police first contacted Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper, they told her that her son was involved in a robbery and that there was a confrontation with the owner, during which Arbery was fatally shot, he said.
"He was not armed," he told CNN.
The birthday would have been Friday
Cooper is one of the many people who say there was nothing fishy about Arbery going for a run.
"I would never have worried about him jogging because if he is jogging he will not bother anyone," said his mother. "I never worried about him running, never."
"Amazing football player, amazing speed," said Brunswick High School football coach and history teacher Jason Vaughn.
Arbery, who would have celebrated his 26th birthday on Friday, was so fast that coaches told him to slow down in practice, Vaughn said. He was a leader on the team, the coach said.
“He is one of those students that you do not forget because his smile was very contagious. His smile made you smile, ”he said.
Vaughn recalled the young man's funny personality and how he made fun of him, standing next to him and telling the passing students: “'You guys get to class. Everyone move on. Come on come on come on I'm Coach Vaughn today '… I just had that kindness. I felt when you weren't feeling well and I just cared for you. "
Demetris Frazier, Arbery's longtime friend and former teammate, called his friend playful, humble, and inspiring. He always made time for the kids, be it a soccer field or a set of hoops, he said.
"He has touched so many people here, and I think that is why the community is so scared right now," he said.
The person described in the Glynn County police report and Barnhill's letter doesn't square with the Arbery that Vaughn and Frazier knew about, the men said.
They want justice, and are joined in their desire by a national choir that includes the ACLU, NAACP, the Southern Poverty Law Center, presidential candidate Joe Biden, LeBron James, and hip-hop stars LL Cool J and Questlove of The Roots. Governor Brian Kemp has tweeted: "Georgians deserve answers."
The video is clear: Ahmaud Arbery was killed in cold blood. My heart goes out to his family, who deserve justice and deserve it now. It is time for a swift, full, and transparent investigation into his murder. https://t.co/alvY5WjdHx
- Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 6, 2020
Frazier doesn't know what the McMichaels had planned when they armed themselves and jumped into his truck to chase him, but that doesn't matter anymore, he said.
"Just because that young man ran around his house doesn't mean he committed a crime," he said. "I don't know their intentions when they did it, but I know the result, and I know it was wrong and I know that justice must be served," he said.
Angela Barajas reported from Glynn County and Eliott C. McLaughlin and Jason Morris reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Martin Savidge, Amir Vera, Steve Almasy, John Murgatroyd and Don Lemon contributed to this report.
