Jury Indicts All 3 Suspects In Ahmaud Arbery Fatal Shooting

COBB COUNTY, GA — Three men arrested for shooting and killing Ahmuad Arbery have been indicted by a grand jury, announced the Cobb County District Attorney Wednesday.

The men are charged with nine counts: malice murder, four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment, the DA said.

Arbery was shot and killed while jogging on Feb. 23. Three arrests in the case were made in May, including when William "Roddie" Bryan Jr., who was arrested and charged with felony murder. Bryan is the man believed to have captured the incident on video. Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael were arrested on May 7.

Two of the three suspects in the Arbery murder case used racial epithets to describe African Americans and the accused shooter used a slur to describe the victim, testimony in court said.

GBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Richard Dial testified that Bryan told police Travis McMichael used the N-word after firing his shotgun at Arbery, CNN reported. A Confederate flag sticker was seen on the toolbox of McMichael's truck, he said.

Dial said that McMichael used the racial slur many times on social media and in texts before the killing.

On Instagram, McMichael said things would be better if someone had "blown that N-word's head off," CNN reported, athough it wasn't clear who he was referring to, the agent said.
Bryan's phone had messages with "racial" terms, Dial said.

"He saw a man running down the road with a truck following him, and I believe he made certain assumptions that were, at least in part, based upon his racial bias," the agent said.

S. Lee Merritt, the attorney representing Arbery's parents, said that the Department of Justice is investigating the shooting death as a hate crime.

Cobb County District Attorney Joyette Holmes had vowed to find justice in the shooting death after becoming the fourth prosecutor to be assigned to the case. Holmes announced the indictment in front of the Glynn County Courthouse.

Travis McMichael’s attorney, Bob Rubin, released a statement after the indictment was announced, saying his client plans to plead not guilty, reported WSB.

“In order to get an indictment the district attorney only has to present their side of the case to the grand jury,” Rubin said. “The grand jury never heard the evidence the defense has in this case and the district attorney never sought from us any input on what to present to the grand jury and that’s unfortunate. To the indictment that’s been returned, we plan to plead not guilty and expect to present the rest of the facts in court.”