Georgia district attorney vows grand jury review after man shot and killed while jogging

A Georgia prosecutor on Tuesday said he would present the case of a man who was shot by a father and son earlier this year to a grand jury for review.

The case involves the death of Ahmaud Arbery, 25, an unarmed black man who was shot and killed on Feb. 23 in Brunswick, Ga., after Gregory McMichael and his son Travis McMichael followed him in their truck.

The McMichaels have claimed they believed Arbery to be a burglar, while an attorney for Arbery’s family said he was in the neighborhood jogging.

“I am of the opinion that the case should be presented to the grand jury of Glynn County for consideration of criminal charges against those involved in the death of Mr. Arbery,” District Attorney (DA) Thomas Durden said Tuesday, according to NBC News.

Lee Merritt, a lawyer for Arbery’s family, tweeted a video on Tuesday showing what he claimed to be Arbery jogging down the street before a struggle with a man outside a truck. The footage, seemingly recorded from another motorist, has not been independently verified.

The McMichaels have claimed Arbery attacked them and attempted to take a shotgun from Travis McMichael, who “fired a shot and then a second later there was a second shot,” a Glynn County police report stated.

“The video clearly shows Mr. Arbery jogging down the road in the middle of the day,” Merritt said in a statement. “Mr. Arebery had not committed any crime and there was no reason for these men to believe they had the right to stop him with weapons or to use deadly force in furtherance of their unlawful attempted stop.”

Durden is the district attorney of Hinesville, about 70 miles from where the incident occurred. He is the third prosecutor to take up the case after two others recused themselves over potential conflicts of interest, including the DA of Brunswick, the jurisdiction where the incident occurred and where Gregory McMichael is a longtime investigator for the DA’s office. Under lockdown orders in Georgia, courts are barred from empaneling either standard trial juries or grand juries through at least June 12.

“I have no control over the suspensions due to the pandemic; however, I do intend to present the case to the next available grand jury in Glynn County,” Durden said, according to NBC.