Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was shot by two armed white residents while on a jog near his neighborhood in Satilla Shores, Georgia on February 23, 2020. Gregory McMichael, one of the shooters, said that Arbery looked like a man who was suspected of some local break-ins, and he and his son, Travis McMichael, took their handgun and shotgun and chased Arbery in their pickup truck. After an alleged struggle between Travis and Arbery, Arbery was fatally shot. Gregory is a former Glynn County police officer who had recently retired. Another man, William Bryan, filmed the death. No arrests were made for several months, but the incident gained more attention a few months later when George Floyd was killed by police. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation then stepped in, and the McMichaels were arrested and charged with murder and aggravated assault in May of 2020. Bryan, the videotaper, was also arrested and charged shortly afterward. A Georgia jury found all three men guilty of murder on November 24, 2021. The three men have also been indicted on federal hate crime charges and attempted kidnapping.
Demonstrators at a memorial for Arbery in Brunswick, GA
The state of Georgia is prosecuting all three men:
State of Georgia v. Travis McMichael
The federal government is also prosecuting the men:
The docket for the federal case is linked above, and the indictment can also be viewed here. For public access to the docket, one can search the case number (No. 2:21-cr-00022) on PACER.
Additionally, Ahmaud Arbery's mother has filed a civil lawsuit:
For public access to the docket, one can search the case number (No. 2:21-cv-00020) on PACER.
Ga. Code Ann. § 16-5-1: Murder; malice murder; felony murder
(a) A person commits the offense of murder when he unlawfully and with malice aforethought, either express or implied, causes the death of another human being.
(b) Express malice is that deliberate intention unlawfully to take the life of another human being which is manifested by external circumstances capable of proof. Malice shall be implied where no considerable provocation appears and where all the circumstances of the killing show an abandoned and malignant heart.
(c) A person commits the offense of murder when, in the commission of a felony, he or she causes the death of another human being irrespective of malice.
Ga. Code Ann. § 16-5-21: Aggravated Assault
(a) A person commits the offense of aggravated assault when he or she assaults:
(1) With intent to murder, to rape, or to rob;
(2) With a deadly weapon or with any object, device, or instrument which, when used offensively against a person, is likely to or actually does result in serious bodily injury;
(3) With any object, device, or instrument which, when used offensively against a person, is likely to or actually does result in strangulation; or
(4) A person or persons without legal justification by discharging a firearm from within a motor vehicle toward a person or persons.
Ga. Code Ann. § 16-5-41: False Imprisonment
(a) A person commits the offense of false imprisonment when, in violation of the personal liberty of another, he arrests, confines, or detains such person without legal authority.
18 U.S.C.A. § 249: Hate crime acts
(a) In general.--
(1) Offenses involving actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin.--Whoever, whether or not acting under color of law, willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire, a firearm, a dangerous weapon, or an explosive or incendiary device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person--
(A) shall be imprisoned not more than 10 years, fined in accordance with this title, or both; and
(B) shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life, fined in accordance with this title, or both, if--
(i) death results from the offense; or
(ii) the offense includes kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill.
18 U.S.C.A. § 1201: Kidnapping
(a) Whoever unlawfully seizes, confines, inveigles, decoys, kidnaps, abducts, or carries away and holds for ransom or reward or otherwise any person, except in the case of a minor by the parent thereof . . .
(a) An act, done with specific intent to commit an offense under this chapter, amounting to more than mere preparation and tending, even though failing, to effect its commission, is an attempt to commit that offense.
