Late Thursday, Georgia father and son Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael were arrested in connection with the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man.
Georgia authorities arrested a white father and son Thursday and charged them with murder in the February shooting death of a black man they had pursued in a truck after spotting him running in their neighbourhood.
The charges came more than two months after Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was killed on a residential street just outside the port city of Brunswick. National outrage over the case swelled this week after a cellphone video emerged that appeared to show the shooting.
Those close to Arbery celebrated the news, but also expressed frustration at the long wait.
“This should have occurred the day it happened,” said Akeem Baker, one of Arbery’s close friends in Brunswick. “There’s no way without the video this would have occurred. I’m just glad the light’s shining very bright on this situation.”
Gregory McMichael told police after the February shooting that he and his son chased after Arbery because they suspected him of being a burglar. Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, has said she believes her son, a former football player, was just jogging in the Satilla Shores neighbourhood before he was killed on a Sunday afternoon.
Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the slain man’s father, Marcus Arbery, said it was “outrageous” that it took so long for arrests to be made.
“This is the first step to justice,” Crump said in a statement. “This murderous father and son duo took the law into their own hands. It’s a travesty of justice that they enjoyed their freedom for 74 days after taking th