Georgia Governor Republican Brian Kemp said Friday that the debate to pass legislation imposing additional sanctions for hate crimes “is underway,” following the shooting death of African-American Ahamaud Arbey on February 23, in the hands of two white men. The State is one of the four territories in the United States that does not cover hate crimes, according to the Department of Justice. Arbey defenders want Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis, 34, accused of the man’s death, to be tried for this bias in addition to the charges of aggravated murder and assault charged Thursday.
“There is no hate crime in Georgia,” the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Vic Reynolds, explained Friday at a press conference when asked if the McMichael would face that charge as well. The governor reported in a statement that “talks on the legislation are already underway,” and that they will work on the process to discuss it “when the General Assembly meets again” in June. It is now inactive due to the coronavirus pandemic. Arbey’s family believes that his death was due to racial reasons. The bill was passed last year by the Georgia House of Representatives, but stalled in the Senate.
This Friday Ahamaud Arbey would have turned 26 years old. Thousands of people have run through the streets in different parts of the country and have shared photos with the 2.23 mile mark on social networks. The distance hints at the date the young African-American man was shot dead by the McMichaels as he ran unarmed down the street. The investigative office joined the case this week and Reynolds explained on Friday morning that the evidence to arrest those responsible for his death was in the “extremely disturbing” video broadcast on Tuesday in which the event was recorded and in documentation complementary. The police had had this material in their possession for weeks. William Roddy Bryan recorded what happened from his car and is now under investigation. At first the Prosecutor’s Office considered him a witness to the event, but the police report of one of the prosecutors who has participated in the case mentioned that he also participated in the persecution. “We are going to go wherever the evidence leads us,” Reynolds said.
As data from the investigation transpires, new unknowns appear in the case. At about 1:00 p.m. on February 23, 911 received a call from an unidentified person alerting the presence of an African-American man in a house under construction. Then he informs him that the subject has run off down the street. The person who answers the call answers: “I just need to know what I was doing wrong. Was he alone on the property and wasn’t he supposed to be? ” In the recording, to which he had access The Guardian, the answer is not understood. Within minutes, 911 receives another call. It is from a man who says he is excited to be in Satilla Shores – where Arbey was killed – and reports that there is an African American man running down the street. Then you hear “Stop! stop! Stop, damn it! ” and “Travis!”, apparently referring to Travis McMichael. The call lasts almost five minutes, but the caller did not speak to the operator again.
After those calls, you can see what happened from a video recorded by Bryan and leaked this week by attorney Alan Tuckler to local radio. Tuckler told NBC News on Friday that he had shared it because he wanted people to know the truth of what had happened, but he wanted neither to exonerate nor exonerate the McMichael. The tape shows ex-Glynn County police officer Gregory McMichael, in the back of a truck with a .357 Magnum pistol, according to police documents, and his son Travis, waiting for Arbery with a shotgun in the middle of the street in broad daylight. These two started a struggle and three shots are heard. “During the encounter, Travis McMichael shot and killed Arbery,” the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported Thursday.
McMichael Sr. told police they chased Arbery when they saw him run past his home because he looked like a robbery suspect who had been hanging around the neighborhood. McMichael stated that he asked the young man running in Nike shorts and sneakers to stop to speak, but he ignored them. He added that when he was intercepted again, Travis got out of the car and Arbery “violently attacked him.” The images in the video further outraged the community, which had been demanding justice since the event and, supported by politicians and celebrities, gained national attention in the case. This Thursday they arrested the McMichael, who have been admitted to prison, but the protests this Friday demanded that they be sentenced.
Prosecutor Tom Durden, who is handling the case, said three days ago that a Glynn County grand jury – inactive for the coronavirus – should decide whether to press criminal charges. In turn, that day the Georgia Bureau of Investigation asked him to become involved in the investigation. It detained the McMichaels in less than 48 hours. Durden acknowledged on Friday at a press conference the delay in the authorities, but assured that investigators had found “new developments” in recent days, without detailing which ones, and that they have not allowed media pressure to influence the decision.
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