A federal investigation into the way the case of the murder of a black jogger was treated last February was demanded this Sunday by the Minister of Justice of Georgia (southern United States).
On February 23, Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was killed while jogging in a residential neighborhood in Brunswick, a city in Georgia, a state in the southern United States. His death had aroused great emotion in the country.
A video that relaunched the investigation
Georgia police announced on Thursday the arrest and charge of two white men believed to have killed him while he was unarmed. The 74-day delay between the murder and the arrests, which occurred two days after a video of the murder was released, raises questions. "I have officially asked the Justice Department to investigate the handling of this case," Georgian Justice Minister Chris Carr wrote on Twitter. The latter assures in his press release that his services "are in favor of a complete and transparent examination of the way in which the Ahmaud Arbery affair has been treated from the start".
"The family, the community and the state of Georgia deserve answers," he said. The Tuesday broadcast of a video of the crime, which had gone viral, had relaunched the investigation. On this 28-second recording made by a cell phone, we see Ahmaud Arbery running in a residential district of Brunswick. As he goes around a white pick-up on which a man is standing, he is stopped by a second man who grabs him. We hear three shots.
A suspected father and son
The streak caused a shock wave and the mobilization of several personalities, including basketball star LeBron James and actress Zoë Kravitz. These images are "very disturbing," said President Donald Trump in an interview on Fox on Friday. "It is a very disturbing situation." Police arrested the two men, Travis McMichael, 34, and his father Gregory McMichael, 64, who both live in Brunswick.
According to the February police report, Gregory McMichael told police that he thought Arbery was a suspect in a series of burglaries in the area. McMichael reported taking a magnum. 357 while his son caught a shotgun. When they caught up with Arbery and Travis McMichael got out of the truck with the shotgun, Arbery began to "attack him violently," the father said, according to the police report. The father said he saw his son shoot Arbery and the jogger fall to the ground.
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