Prosecutor: Grant jury to weigh charges in Georgia shooting

SAVANNAH, Ga. — A Georgia prosecutor said Tuesday that he wants a grand jury to consider criminal charges in the death of a man shot after a pursuit by armed men who later told police they suspected him of being a burglar.

Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was killed Feb. 23 in a neighbourhood outside the coastal port city of Brunswick. No one has been arrested or charged in the case, prompting an outcry from the local NAACP and others because Arbery was black and the men who chased him are white.

Tom Durden, an outside prosecutor assigned to examine the case, said he plans to have a grand jury hear the evidence in the shooting. That won’t happen for more than a month, as Georgia courts remain largely closed because of the coronavirus until at least June 13.

“I am of the opinion that the case should be presented to the grand jury of Glynn County for consideration of criminal charges against those involved in the death of Mr. Arbery,” Durden said in a statement Tuesday.

Reached by phone, Durden said no arrests have been made in connection with the shooting. He declined to say what charges he would have a grand jury consider or to comment further.

John Perry, a Brunswick pastor and president of the local NAACP chapter, said he was glad to hear that Durden will send the case to a grand jury. But he was dismayed that the armed men who went after Arbery remain free.

“It’s very problematic,” Perry said. “To shoot and kill and not get arrested, it doesn’t compute.”

According to an incident report filed by Glynn County police, Arbery was shot Feb. 23 after two men spotted him running in their neighbourhood and armed themselves with guns before getting in a truck to pursue him. Gregory McMichael told police that he and his adult son thought the young man matched someone caught on a security camera committing a recent break-in in the neighbourhood.

McMichael told police they followed the running man and came to a stop beside him. He said his son, Travis McMichael, got out of the truck holding a shotgun when Arbery attacked him and Arbery got shot while wrestling for the gun, the police report said.

Perry of the NAACP said he believes it’s “a case of outright murder.” The Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights group, has demanded the U.S. Justice Department investigate.

Friends and relatives of Arbery have told news outlets they believe he was jogging through the Satilla Shores neighbourhood just a few miles from his own home when the McMichaels chased him on a Sunday afternoon.

A phone number listed for Gregory McMichael has been disconnected. The Associated Press could not immediately find a phone listing for Travis McMichael.

Jackie Johnson, the district attorney for Glynn County, recused herself from the case because Gregory McMichael worked as an investigator in her office. He retired a year ago.

Durden, district attorney for the neighbouring Atlantic Judicial Circuit in southeast Georgia is the second outside prosecutor assigned to the case. District Attorney George Barnhill of the nearby Waycross circuit had the case for more than a month before stepping aside in mid-April.

According to the incident report filed by Glynn County police, Gregory McMichael told officers that when he saw Arbery running down his street, he grabbed a handgun and his son took a shotgun, fearing the runner may be armed, before they pursued him in a truck. He told police they pulled alongside Arbery and shouted, “Stop, stop, we want to talk to you!”

McMichael said his son got out of the truck and the running man “began to violently attack” and “the two men then started fighting over the shotgun,” the police report said. Shots were fired from the shotgun and Arbery fell face down and died.

The police report says Gregory McMichael turned Arbery onto his back to see if he was armed — but the report doesn’t say whether he had a weapon or not.

Russ Bynum, The Associated Press