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Protesters
gather
outside
the
Glynn
County
Courthouse
during a
rally to
protest
the
shooting
of
Ahmaud
Arbery,
Saturday,
May 16,
2020, in
Brunswick,
Ga.
(Hyosub
Shin/Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
via AP)
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Law
enforcement
ties,
long
delay
complicate
Arbery
case
By
KATE
BRUMBACK
and
COLLEEN
LONG
apnews.com
ATLANTA
- There
was an
abundance
of
evidence
when
officers
arrived
at the
scene on
a
February
afternoon
in
coastal
Georgia:
A man,
apparently
unarmed,
lying on
the
street,
soaked
in
blood.
The
suspected
shooter,
a
shotgun,
eyewitnesses.
And
video of
the
incident.
But
no
arrests
were
made in
the
death of
25-year-old
Ahmaud
Arbery
for more
than two
months,
not
until
after
video of
the
shooting
in
Brunswick
surfaced
and
stoked a
national
uproar
over
race
relations.
Local
prosecutors
are now
under
investigation
for
their
handling
of the
case.
And a
newly
appointed
investigative
agency
and
prosecutor
must
untangle
the
criminal
investigation,
build a
case and
make up
for lost
time.
Among
the
questions:
Did
shooting
suspect
Travis
McMichael
and his
father,
Gregory,
both
white,
get
special
treatment
because
the
elder
McMichael
had been
a
longtime
investigator
at the
Brunswick
Circuit
District
Attorney’s
office?
Did
investigators
treat
the
shooting
as a
potential
murder,
or as a
justifiable
homicide?
And
might
the
outcome
have
been
different
if
Arbery
weren’t
black?
People
listen
to
speakers
in
Atlanta
before
driving
down to
Brunswick.
Ga. for
a rally
to
protest
the
shooting
of
Ahmaud
Arbery,
Saturday,
May 16,
2020.
(Steve
Schaefer/Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
via AP)
The
911
operator
sounded
confused
by the
caller’s
description
of a
purported
crime: A
man was
in a
house
under
construction.
“You
said
someone’s
breaking
into it
right
now?”
“No,
it’s all
open.
It’s
under
construction,”
the
caller
says,
“And
he’s
running
right
now.
There he
goes
right
now.”
The
dispatcher
says
she’ll
send
police,
but “I
just
need to
know
what he
was
doing
wrong.”
A
second
call
comes in
six
minutes
later:
“I’m out
here in
Satilla
Shores.
There’s
a black
male
running
down the
street.”
The
operator
is
trying
to get
more
details
when a
man
yells,
“Stop.
...
Damnit.
Stop.”
Then,
after a
pause,
“Travis!”
Moments
later,
Arbery
is shot.
According
to the
police
report,
Gregory
McMichael
said he
saw a
person
he
suspected
of
burglary
“hauling
ass”
down the
street.
He ran
inside
his
house,
calling
for his
son
Travis.
The two
grabbed
their
guns,
hopped
into a
pickup
truck
and
chased
him.
Gregory
McMichael
told
police
they
wanted
to talk
to
Arbery
and
tried to
corner
him, but
he began
to
“violently
attack”
Travis
McMichael,
the
report
says.
The two
fought
over the
shotgun,
and
Arbery
was
shot.
The
McMichaels
claimed
self-defense.
The
father
and son
were
questioned,
and
police
called
the
district
attorney’s
office,
where
Gregory
McMichael
had
worked
for more
than two
decades,
for
legal
advice.
They
were
released.
Meanwhile,
Arbery’s
mother
got a
call
from an
investigator.
“He
went on
to say
that
Ahmaud
was
involved
in a
burglary,
and in
the
midst of
the
burglary
he was
confronted
by the
homeowner,
and in
the
midst of
that
confrontation,
there
was a
fight
over the
firearm
and
Ahmaud
was shot
and
killed,”
Wanda
Cooper-Jones
told The
Associated
Press.
She
repeated
that
story to
her
family.
___
Law
enforcement
in
Brunswick
has a
checkered
history,
and over
the past
decade
police
have
faced
numerous
lawsuits
and
increasing
scrutiny.
In
2010,
two
officers
fired
eight
bullets
into an
unarmed
woman’s
car
after a
chase,
killing
her. An
investigation
found
neither
of the
officers
checked
on her
condition
afterward
—
instead
their
in-car
cameras
caught
them
comparing
their
shooting
skills.
One
of those
officers
later
killed
his
estranged
wife and
her
friend
before
dying in
a
standoff
with
police.
Just
days
after
Arbery’s
killing,
Glynn
County
Police
Chief
John
Powell
and
three
former
high-ranking
officers
were
indicted
in what
investigators
described
as a
cover-up
of an
officer’s
sexual
relationship
with an
informant.
A
November
2019
memo
from the
county
manager
described
how
Powell
had
“inherited
a
culture
of
cronyism,
outdated
policies,
lack of
appropriate
training,
and loss
of State
certification.”
The
memo
also
described
how
supervisors
had
failed
to
document
or
investigate
misconduct
allegations
and
detailed
a
“culture
of
cover-ups,
failure
to
supervise,
abuse of
power,
and lack
of
accountability
within
the
Glynn
County
Police
Department”
before
Powell
arrived.
Now,
the
version
of
Arbery’s
death
told to
Cooper-Jones
is under
dispute,
and
authorities
are
again
under
scrutiny.
___
Officers
in a
small
town
calling
the DA
for
guidance
in a
fatal
shooting
case is
not
unusual
and
would
normally
be
uncontroversial.
But
there’s
disagreement
over
what
happened
next.
Peter
Murphy,
an
elected
commissioner
in Glynn
County,
alleged
that
officers
were
hesitant
to
arrest
the
McMichaels
after
the DA’s
office
told
them it
wasn’t
necessary.
“I’m
just
wondering,
what
other
investigation
occurred
over the
next two
months
really?”
Murphy
said.
The
district
attorney’s
office
has
called
that a
“malicious
lie” and
says it
was
police
who
raised
the
justified
shooting
angle.
Police
say they
were
told the
day of
the
shooting
that
more
follow-up
was
needed
but the
McMichaels
weren’t
flight
risks
and
could go
home. A
second
prosecutor
was
brought
in after
the
first
recused
herself
because
Gregory
McMichael
had
worked
for her,
and he
quickly
decided
no
charges
were
necessary.
He was
eventually
removed
over his
own
conflict
of
interest
— his
son
works at
the
Brunswick
Circuit.
J.
Tom
Morgan,
a former
metro
Atlanta
district
attorney
who is
now a
criminal
defense
lawyer,
said it
would be
a “big
misstep”
for the
DA to
advise
against
arrests
if
officers
decided
there
was
probable
cause
that a
crime
had
occurred.
“I
can’t
imagine
saying
‘stand
down’ if
I’m not
there
personally
to talk
to
people,”
Morgan
said.
“If
police
believe
they
have
probable
cause,
I’m not
going to
second-guess
them
from my
back
porch.”
In
any
homicide,
it’s
important
to
interview
witnesses
immediately
while
the
facts
are
still
fresh in
their
minds
and
before
they’ve
had a
chance
to
coordinate
stories.
If that
was
delayed
because
officers
were
told not
to make
arrests,
it could
be
problematic,
he said.
Bowling
Green
State
University
criminologist
Philip
Stinson
said
there is
also a
tendency
to treat
a crime
scene
differently
if a
current
or
former
law
enforcement
officer
is
involved,
as was
the case
with
Gregory
McMichael.
It
could
make it
harder
for
prosecutors
to bring
a
successful
murder
case,
and
easier
for
defense
lawyers
to argue
that the
crime
scene is
tainted
by
potential
prosecutor
misconduct
that’s
under
investigation
by
Georgia
authorities.
It
looks
like
investigators
started
with an
assumption
it was a
justified
shooting,
Stinson
said.
“Because
of that
—
because
of all
of the
assumptions
that are
made,
all of
the
steps in
the
investigation
that are
not
taken —
they
made the
job much
more
difficult
for the
AG’s
office,”
he said.
___
The
case
seemed
to have
stalled
until
May 5,
when a
video
was
posted
to the
website
of a
local
radio
station.
The
shaky
footage,
taken by
a man
listed
in the
police
report
as a
witness,
shows
Arbery,
dressed
in
shorts
and a
white
top,
running
from the
McMichaels.
The
driver’s
side
door is
open.
Travis
McMichael
and
Arbery
appear
to
struggle
over the
gun.
Gregory
McMichael
hops
from the
back of
the
truck.
Arbery
is shot
and
falls to
the
ground.
It
doesn’t
show
Arbery
with a
firearm,
nor have
police
said
they
recovered
one.
The
footage
seemed
to
refute
Gregory
McMichael’s
version
and
prompted
widespread
outrage
and
calls
for
justice.
The case
drew
national
attention,
including
from
Jay-Z
and
President
Donald
Trump,
who said
he was
“disturbed.”
The
Georgia
Bureau
of
Investigation
took
over the
case.
Investigators
canvassed
the
neighborhood,
talking
to some
people
who had
previously
been
interviewed
and
others
who
hadn’t.
They
arrested
both
McMichaels
on
charges
of
aggravated
assault
and
murder
May 7,
less
than 48
hours
later.
GBI
director
Vic
Reynolds
said
there
was
clear
probable
cause
and that
local
authorities
had done
“a good
investigation,
a
thorough
investigation.”
___
The
legal
case now
stretches
beyond
coastal
Georgia,
with the
FBI
weighing
potential
federal
hate
crime
charges.
And more
evidence
is
emerging.
A
third
prosecutor
who had
the case
when the
video
surfaced
was
removed
after
the
attorney
general
said it
had
grown in
“size
and
scope,”
and a
fourth
prosecutor
from a
bigger
district
has now
been
appointed.
Cobb
County
District
Attorney
Joyette
M.
Holmes,
one of
seven
black
district
attorneys
in
Georgia,
is
overseeing
the
prosecution
at the
direction
of the
state
attorney
general.
The
first
DA,
Jackie
Johnson,
has
defended
her
office’s
involvement.
So has
the
second
DA.
“I’m
confident
an
investigation
is going
to show
my
office
did what
it was
supposed
to and
there
was no
wrongdoing
on our
part,”
Johnson
told the
AP this
week.
Asked if
anyone
in her
office
told
police
not to
arrest
the
McMichaels
or
suggested
the
shooting
may have
been
justified,
Johnson
said,
“Absolutely
not.”
More
video
has
emerged
of a man
inside a
house
under
construction
— the
home
where
the 911
caller
reported
seeing
someone
shortly
before
Arbery
was
shot.
But the
owner’s
lawyer
has told
AP and
others
the
house
was wide
open,
and
nothing
was ever
taken.
The
McMichaels
remain
in jail
and
their
attorneys
caution
against
a rush
to
judgment.
For
now the
case is
stalled
once
again,
with
courts
largely
closed
due to
the
coronavirus
pandemic
and no
way to
call a
grand
jury
until
mid-June
at the
earliest.
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