Man who filmed Arbery shooting video charged in his slaying
SAVANNAH,
Ga. (AP) — The Georgia man whose cellphone video of Ahmaud Arbery’s
fatal shooting helped reignite the case was charged with murder
Thursday, making him the third person arrested more than two months
after the slaying.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said
50-year-old William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. was arrested on charges of felony
murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment. No other
details were given. The GBI said in a statement that it would hold a
news conference Friday morning.
Arbery was slain Feb. 23 when a
white father and son armed themselves and pursued him after spotting the
25-year-old black man running in their neighborhood. More than two months passed
before authorities arrested Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis
McMichael, 34, on charges of felony murder and aggravated assault.
Gregory McMichael told police he suspected Arbery was a burglar and that
Arbery attacked his son before being shot.
Bryan lives in the
same subdivision just outside the port city of Brunswick, and the video
he took from the cab of his vehicle helped stir a national outcry when it leaked online May 5.
The
video quickly drew a strong reaction from Georgia Gov. Bryan Kemp, a
Republican who called it “absolutely horrific.” The Georgia Bureau of
Investigation soon took over the case from local police, and the arrests
of the McMichaels followed on May 7.
Under Georgia law, a person
can be charged with felony murder for committing any felony that causes
the death of someone else. It does not require intent to kill and
carries an automatic life sentence.
In the Glynn County police
incident report on the shooting, Gregory McMichael told an officer that
at one point Arbery “began running back the direction from which he came
and `Roddy’ attempted to block him which was unsuccessful.” It’s the
only mention in the police report of any potential involvement by Bryan.
Bryan’s
attorney, Kevin Gough, did not immediately return a phone message
Thursday. He has previously insisted Bryan played no role in Arbery’s
death.
“Roddie Bryan is not now, and has never been, more than a
witness to the shooting,” Gough said in a statement on the case Monday.
“He is not a vigilante. Roddie did not participate in the horrific
killing of this young man. Mr. Bryan has committed no crime, and bears
no criminal responsibility in the death of Ahmaud Arbery.”
Meanwhile, attorneys for Arbery’s parents cheered the news of Bryan’s arrest.
“We
called for his arrest from the very beginning of this process,”
attorneys S. Lee Merritt, Benjamin Crump and L. Chris Stewart said in a
statement. “His involvement in the murder of Mr. Arbery was obvious to
us, to many around the country and after their thorough investigation,
it was clear to the GBI as well.”
Bryan’s video of the shooting
was taken from the driver’s seat of a vehicle following Arbery as he
runs along a residential street. A pickup truck is parked in the road
ahead of Arbery, with one man in the truck’s bed and another standing
beside the open driver’s side door.
The video shows Arbery run
around the truck to the right before he cuts back in front of it. Then a
gunshot can be heard, followed by a second shot. Arbery can be seen
punching a man holding what appears to be a shotgun, who then fires a
third shot point-blank. Arbery staggers and falls face down in the
street.
Gregory McMichael retired last year after more than two
decades as an investigator for the local prosecutor’s office. Because of
those ties, Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson
recused herself from the case. Two outside prosecutors assigned the
case have also stepped aside.
The McMichaels remain jailed in
Glynn County waiting for a preliminary court hearing and for a judge to
decide whether to free them on bond pending trial. Attorneys for the
father and son have urged people not to rush to judgment in the case.