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World

US indicts 3 on hate crime charges in

death of Ahmaud Arbery

In this May 17, 2020, photo, a recently painted mural of Ahmaud Arbery is on display in Brunswick, Georgi.,
where the 25-year-old man was shot and killed in February. (Photo: AP/Sarah Blake Morgan)

WASHINGTON: The Justice Department brought federal hate crimes charges on

Wednesday (Apr 28) in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, charging a father and son who
armed themselves, chased and fatally shot the 25-year-old black man after spotting
him running in their Georgia neighbourhood.

Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory, were charged along with a third man,
William “Roddie” Bryan, with one count of interference with civil rights and
attempted kidnapping. The McMichaels are also charged with using, carrying and
brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.

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The case is the most significant civil rights prosecution undertaken to date by the
Biden administration Justice Department and comes as federal officials have moved
quickly to open sweeping investigations into troubled police departments as civil
rights takes center stage among the department’s priorities.

The indictment charges that the McMichaels “armed themselves with firearms, got
into a truck and chased Arbery through the public streets of the neighbourhood while
yelling at Arbery, using their truck to cut off his route and threatening him with
firearms.” It also alleges that Bryan got into a truck and then chased Arbery, using
the vehicle to block his path.
 Arbery, 25, was killed on Feb 23, 2020, by three close-range shotgun blasts after the
McMichaels pursued him in a pickup truck as he was running through their
neighbourhood. Arbery had been dead for more than two months when a cellphone
video of the shooting was leaked online and a national outcry erupted.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case the next day and swiftly
arrested Travis McMichael, who fired the shots, his father, and Bryan, a neighbour
who joined the pursuit and took the video. The three men remain jailed on state
murder charges and are due back in court in May.

The McMichaels’ lawyers have said they Advertisement

pursued Arbery, suspecting he was a

burglar, after security cameras had
29 Apr 2021 06:24AM
previously recorded him entering a home
under construction. They say Travis
(https://v1.addthis.com/live/redirect/?
McMichael shot Arbery while fearing for
url=mailto%3A%3Fbody%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.channelnewsasia.com%252Fnews%252Fworld%252Fus-
indicts- his life as they grappled over a shotgun.
3-
on- Local prosecutors have said Arbery stole
hate- nothing and was merely out jogging when
crime-
the McMichaels and Bryan chased him.
charges-
in-
The Justice Department alleges that the men “used force and threats of force to
death-
intimidate and interfere with Arbery’s right to use a public street because of his
of-
ahmaud- race.”

arbery-
At the time Arbery was killed, Georgia was one of just four US states without a hate
14711666%2523.YI812Iv_Zec.mailto%26subject%3DUS%2520indicts%25203%2520on%2520hate%2520crime%2520charges%2520in%25
5e0028e53cd1fd98&rev=v8.28.8-
crimes law. Amid the outcry over his death, Georgia lawmakers quickly passed a law
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allowing for an additional penalty for certain crimes found to be motivated by a
300) victim’s race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, or
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mental or physical disability.

The men charged with murdering Arbery won’t face hate crime penalties at the state
level because the law was changed after the killing.

Attorneys for Travis McMichael said they were disappointed “that the Justice
Department bought the false narrative that the media and state prosecutors have
promulgated".

“There is absolutely nothing in the indictment that identifies how this is a federal
hate crime and it ignores without apology that Georgia law allows a citizen to detain
a person who was committing burglaries until police arrive,” attorneys Bob Rubin
and Jason Sheffield said.

Gregory McMichael’s attorneys, Frank and Laura Hogue, did not immediately
respond Wednesday to an email seeking comment and Bryan’s attorney, Kevin
Gough, said he had no immediate comment because he had not read the federal
indictment.

Source:
AP

Tagged Topics
news and politics (https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/topic/news-and-politics)

charge (https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/topic/charge)

Ahmaud Arbery (https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/topic/ahmaud-arbery)

Bryan (https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/topic/bryan)

Georgia (https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/topic/georgia)

McMichaels (https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/topic/mcmichaels)
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indicts-
3-
on-
hate-
crime-
charges-
in-
death-
of-
ahmaud-
arbery-
14711666%2523.YI812JyWpAs.mailto%26subject%3DUS%2520indicts%25203%2520on%2520hate%
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