A federal grand jury has charged the three men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery with federal hate crime charges.
The grand jury in the Southern District of Georgia handed up the indictment on Wednesday, April 28, 2021.
Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan are now also being charged with one count of interference with rights and with one count of attempted kidnapping. Travis and Gregory McMichael were also charged with one count each of using, carrying, and brandishing — and in Travis’s case, discharging — a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
The McMichaels have said they thought Arbery was a burglary suspect when they followed him and he was shot to death.
Until Wednesday, the McMichaels faced felony murder charges in the shooting death of Arbery back in February 2020 in Brunswick.
Bryan, 50, shot the video that showed what appears to be Gregory and Travis McMichael shooting and killing Arbery while he was out jogging. The new federal charges are in addition to the charges of felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.
The men never faced state hate crime charges in Georgia because the law passed after the incident happened. Since this case started, the state has also abolished the citizen’s arrest law that dated back to the civil war.
