Who was Ahmaud Arbery?
AHMAUD Arbery was a young black man who was gunned down by multiple white men while jogging near Brunswick in Glynn County, Georgia.
The men were all found guilty of hate crimes and some counts of murder in the case.
Who is Ahmaud Arbery?
Ahmaud Arbery was a 25-year-old black man who graduated in 2012.
He was a former high school football star who lived in coastal Glynn County, Georgia with his mother.
Friends and family said he was an avid runner.
Rafael Baker Jr. played football with Arbery.
He remembered him as a "vocal, funny, and goofy guy."
He told PBS NewsHour he thought of Arbery as a brother.
He said: "He made everybody smile."
"If there was anything going on, he knew how to lighten up the mood and just make you feel good."
Arbery's father, Marcus Arbery, said: "He ran all the time."
"Everybody knows he ran all the time."
"All he did was work out... he had dreams."
"All his dreams, gone."
What happened to Ahmaud Arbery?
Ahmaud Arbery went for a run in Brunswick in the early afternoon of February 23, 2020.
During his run, he passed through the Satilla Shores neighborhood, where Gregory McMichael saw him, and testified in court that he believed he resembled the suspect in a series of local break-ins.
A neighbor who filmed the entire incident also faced charges.
The film showed Gregory and his adult son, Travis McMichael, armed and pursuing Arbery in a pickup truck.
In the police report, Gregory McMichael. said he and his son said: "Stop, stop, we want to talk to you."
The report also said the men accused Arbery of attacking Travis.
The footage shows Arbery run past a truck in a white t-shirt and shorts.
Two white men carrying guns were seen, and shouting was heard.
Then a scuffle broke out between one of them and Arbery, and a gun was fired.
Arbery staggered and collapsed in the street.
According to Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, police told her that her son had been involved in a burglary before his killing.
The family didn't believe that Arbery had committed a crime.
What was the verdict in the Ahmaud Arbery case?
On November 24, 2021, Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael were both given life plus twenty years in prison.
William 'Roddie' Bryan, the man who filmed the entire incident, was sentenced to life in jail with the possibility of parole.
The pace of the investigation has come under heavy criticism, as has the way it was initially handled.
The police initially released the McMichaels after the murder because they claimed they had been acting in 'self-defense.'
It wasn't until the film was released to the public in May 2020 that the arrests were made or charges considered.
This sparked outrage among many Americans, who called the shooting a racist hate crime.
Three days after the media frenzy over the video, Gregory and Travis McMichael were detained by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on May 7, 2020.
On April 28, 2021, the US Justice Department indicted the father-son pair on three hate crimes in Arbery's death with one count of interference with civil rights and attempted kidnapping.
The indictment charges state that the McMichaels “armed themselves with firearms, got into a truck and chased Arbery through the public streets of the neighborhood while yelling at Arbery, using their truck to cut off his route and threatening him with firearms.”
The Justice Department alleges that the men “used force and threats of force to intimidate and interfere with Arbery’s right to use a public street because of his race.”
The McMichaels are also charged with using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.
The GBI also arrested the man who recorded the video, William "Roddie" Bryan Jr. and charged him with felony murder.
He was also indicted for a hate crime.