A look at the major moments between Mr. Arbery’s killing in a Georgia suburb and the trial of three men found guilty of murder.
Ahmaud Arbery loved to run. A former high school football standout, he had been jogging near his home on the outskirts of Brunswick, Ga., when he was shot and killed after being pursued by two white men with guns, according to the authorities. The men, Travis McMichael,34, and his father, Gregory McMichael,64, were charged in May 2020 with murder and aggravated assault — two days after a graphic video of the shooting of Mr. Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, became public, and more than two months after the killing itself. A neighbor who filmed the attack was also charged. The case has generated a wave of outrage and raised concerns about persistent racial inequities in the justice system. Here is a timeline of the events around the case. Feb.23,2020 Mr. Arbery was killed shortly after 1 p.m. on Feb.23, in Satilla Shores, a suburban neighborhood about 15 minutes from downtown Brunswick. The authorities said he was shot after an encounter with Gregory and Travis McMichael, who had grabbed two guns and followed Mr. Arbery in a truck after he jogged past them. Gregory McMichael told the police that he thought Mr. Arbery looked like a man suspected in several break-ins in the area. The Brunswick News, citing documents obtained through a public records request, reported that there had been just one burglary in the neighborhood since January: the theft of a handgun from an unlocked truck parked outside Travis McMichael’s house. Feb.27,2020 The Brunswick District Attorney’s Office and the Glynn County Police Department conducted the initial investigation into the killing. In late February, the Brunswick district attorney, Jackie L. Johnson, recused herself from the case, pointing out that Gregory McMichael, a former Glynn County police officer, had been a longtime investigator in her office until his retirement. April 1, 2020 After a public records request, The Brunswick News reported details of the Glynn County Police Department’s records on the shooting. The police report was based almost entirely on the responding officer’s interview with Gregory McMichael. The records claimed that after the McMichaels pursued Mr. Arbery, Travis McMichael and Mr. Arbery “started fighting over the shotgun, at which point Travis fired a shot and then a second later there was a second shot.” Early April 2020 The case was taken over by George E. Barnhill, the Waycross district attorney, who advised the police that there was insufficient cause to arrest Mr. Arbery’s pursuers. He argued that they had acted legally under Georgia’s citizen arrest and self-defense laws, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. Under pressure from Mr. Arbery’s family, Mr. Barnhill then recused himself from the case because his son had worked in the Brunswick prosecutor’s office with Gregory McMichael.
