BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The three white men charged in Ahmaud Arbery’s slaying were found guilty of murder Wednesday after more than 10 hours of deliberation.
The decision comes almost two years after the 25-year-old Black man was killed while running outside the Georgia port city of Brunswick.
Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael grabbed guns and jumped in a pickup truck to pursue Arbery after seeing him in their neighborhood. Their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan joined the pursuit in his own pickup and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael firing the fatal shots.
Arbery’s killing in February 2020 became part of a larger national reckoning on racial injustice after the graphic video leaked online two months later. All three men were charged with murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and attempted false imprisonment.
Though prosecutors did not argue that racism motivated the killing, federal authorities have charged all three men with hate crimes, alleging that they chased and killed Arbery because he was Black. That case is scheduled to go to trial in February.
