Still too many questions
For more than seventy days after the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery on February 23rd, it seemed as if there was very little legal action taking place. But in the past week, there’s been a flurry of national attention to not only the killing but the response of Georgia’s legal system. That response is now becoming the focus of the story, far more than the details of the shooting itself. As a result of widespread criticism and questions over how the case was originally handled, the state’s Attorney General has now requested a federal investigation into the matter, seeking to determine if the police and the local District Attorney conducted an unbiased investigation into the events of that day. (NBC News)
Georgia’s attorney general asked the U. S. Justice Department on Sunday to investigate how local authorities handled the killing of Ahmaud Arbery.
Attorney General Chris Carr said in a statement that local prosecutors had not informed his office that they had advised police on whether Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, should be arrested after Arbery was killed Feb. 23 in Brunswick.
Arbery, 25, who was black, was shot to death after being chased by white men in a pickup truck. Arbery was unarmed and on a jog at the time of his death, his family says.
This does sound like the next logical step in the investigation. The actual facts of the case no longer seem to be in dispute. The police know all of the pertinent physical details of the shooting including where and when it happened, the weapons used and the identities of all the people involved. The McMichaels aren’t trying to say they didn’t shoot Arbery. The only remaining questions relate to how the situation escalated so quickly and if there is some justifiable reason for them to open fire that would shield them from criminal liability.
