The fatal shooting of a black man – apparently recorded on video in February and posted online Tuesday by a local radio station host – will go to a grand jury in coastal Georgia, according to a district attorney.
Elements of the disturbing video are consistent with a description of the shooting given to police by one of those involved in the incident.
Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was jogging in a neighborhood outside Brunswick on February 23 when a former police officer and his son chased him down, authorities said. According to a Glynn County Police report, Gregory McMichael later told officers that he thought Arbery looked like a person suspected in a series of recent break-ins in the area.
After they chased down Arbery, McMichael told police, Arbery and McMichael’s son Travis struggled over his son’s shotgun. McMichael said two shots were fired before Arbery fell to the street, the report said.
In a letter to police, George Barnhill , one of the district attorneys who has recused himself from the case and who saw the autopsy report, wrote that Arbery sustained three wounds during the struggle for the gun.
Tom Durden, the district attorney for the Atlantic Judicial Circuit, wrote in a news release obtained by CNN on Tuesday that he expects to present the case to the next available grand jury in Glynn County to consider whether charges are merited for those involved in Arbery’s death.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, courts are currently prohibited from empaneling grand juries.
Durden did not return CNN’s calls for comment, but the local branch of the NAACP provided CNN with the document – labeled as a press release – which matches a statement Durden gave to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
S. Lee Merritt, an attorney for the Arbery family, said in a statement that the two men involved in the chase “must be taken into custody pending their indictment.”
CNN’s attempts to reach the McMichaels on Tuesday were unsuccessful.
Gov. Brian Kemp said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has offered resources to Durden for his investigation. “Georgians deserve answers,” Kemp tweeted.