Ahmaud Arbery’s mother reacts to three guilty verdicts for murder of son
Three white men have been found guilty of murdering Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger who they chased in their trucks then shot and killed as he made his way through a suburban neighbourhood in Georgia last February.
The shooting, along with the murder of George Floyd last May by police in Minneapolis, helped inspire 2020’s mass racial injustice protests.
Gregory McMichael, his son Travis, and their neighbour William “Roddie” Bryan faced a total of nine state charges, including malice murder, felony murder, false imprisonment, aggravated assault with a 12-gauge shotgun, and aggravated assault with pickup trucks, after pursuing Mr Arbery, 25, through the community of Satilla Shores, near Brunswick, Georgia, on 23 February of last year.
The jury began deliberations on Tuesday in Glynn County, Georgia, and considered the charges for more than 10 hours, before handing back a complicated final decision.
Travis McMichael, the man who shot Mr Arbery, was found guilty on all nine counts.
Gregory McMichael, who rode in the same truck as his son Travis, where the men were armed with a pistol and a shotgun, was found not guilty of malice murder, but guilty on all other counts.
Bryan, their neighbour, who joined the pursuit in his own truck and filmed the encounter, was found not guilty of malice murder and one count of felony murder, while being held guilty on three other counts of felony murder and three other charges.
