The lawyer for Ahmaud Arbery’s family said the 25-year-old was chased for four minutes before being gunned down by a white father and son in February.
According to attorney S. Lee Merritt, the initial video that was leaked by Brunswick attorney Alan Tucker and revealed Arbery’s last moments on February 23 is much longer.
Merritt confirmed to Fox News on Monday that the new video shows William Bryan, who recorded the shooting, Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis McMichael, 34, chasing Arbery for four minutes while he was jogging in the Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia.
No other information has been released regarding the extended video, but Arbery’s family is expected to release a statement today.
According to attorney, S. Lee Merritt (left), who is representing the Arbery family, the initial video that was leaked by Brunswick attorney Alan Tucker and revealed Ahmaud Arbery’s (right) last moments on February 23,shows the McMichaels chasing Arbery for four minutes
Shocking cellphone video captured the moment Gregory and Travis McMichael confronted Arbery in the street. In the footage Travis is seen engaging in a physical fight with Arbery before shooting him with a shotgun
This map shows the February 23 encounter between Arbery and the McMichaels
Arbery was killed February 23 after the father and son trailed him in their white pick-up truck after he jogged past their yard.
The elder McMichael told police he suspected Arbery was responsible for recent break-ins in the neighborhood.
But local police have said there have been no break-ins in the area for the last couple of months.
The video fueled a national outcry not just over the killing but also that more than two months passed before arrests were made.
The McMichaels have been jailed on murder charges since May 7.
Merritt took to Twitter on Saturday to share that local police had given a property owner the retired officer’s number in December to report when people were on his property.
Arbery was killed February 23 after Gregory McMichael (left), and his son Travis McMichael (right) pursued him when he jogged past their yard just outside the port city of Brunswick
Officers with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are seen arresting both McMichaels on May 7
‘Police told the homeowner where #AhmaudArbery was last seen to contact Greg McMichael if his cameras caught someone on his property,’ he said in the Saturday tweet.
‘McMichael in turn gathered a posse & began hunting for Ahmaud, or someone who fit his description, catching up with him on 2/23/20 – killing him.’
Attorney Franklin Hogue, hired to defend Gregory McMichael along with his law partner wife, said more details would be revealed at a preliminary court hearing that he plans to request soon.
‘The truth will reveal this is not just another act of violent racism,’ Franklin Hogue told a news conference outside the couple’s Macon office.
‘Greg McMichael did not commit murder. Greg McMichael is not a party to the crime of murder.’
L. Chris Stewart, an attorney also representing Arbery’s family, derided the older McMichael for having possession of the video.
‘He had that tape by himself. He delivered it. We have questions about the length of it,’ the lawyer said.
He later added: ‘I have no doubt that Mr. McMichael and his son believe what he did was OK. It just wasn’t. Travis never should have gotten that shotgun. That is significant.’
‘What was he doing wrong?’ 911 operator confused by caller’s description of a purported crime that a man was in a house that was under construction
During the 911 call that was placed just before the McMichaels pursued Arbery on February 23, the dispatcher asked the caller: ‘You said someone’s breaking into it right now?’
‘No, it’s all open. It’s under construction,’ the caller says, ‘And he’s running right now. There he goes right now.’
The dispatcher says she’ll send police, but ‘I just need to know what he was doing wrong’.
Protesters gather outside the Glynn County Courthouse during a rally to protest Arbery’s killing on Saturday
The crowd marched away from the courthouse, taking a knee in silence and blocking traffic for more than 60 seconds to symbolize the days it took for arrests in the case
A second call comes in six minutes later: ‘I’m out here in Satilla Shores. There’s a black male running down the street.’
The operator is trying to get more details when a man yells: ‘Stop. … Damnit. Stop.’ Then, after a pause, the man yells: ‘Travis!’
According to the police report, Gregory McMichael said he saw a person he suspected of burglary ‘hauling ass’ down the street.
He and his son Travis grabbed their guns, hopped into their pickup truck and chased him down.
Gregory McMichael told police they wanted to talk to Arbery and tried to corner him, but Arbery began to ‘violently attack’ Travis McMichael, the report says.
The two fought over the shotgun, and Arbery was shot. The McMichaels claimed self-defense.
Police called the district attorney’s office, where Gregory McMichael had worked for more than two decades, for advice, and they were released.
Arbery’s mother got a call from an investigator.
‘He went on to say that Ahmaud was involved in a burglary, and in the midst of the burglary he was confronted by the homeowner, and in the midst of that confrontation, there was a fight over the firearm and Ahmaud was shot and killed,’ Wanda Cooper-Jones told The Associated Press.
Checkered past of law enforcement in Brunswick as cops face numerous lawsuits and increasing scrutiny
Just days after Arbery’s killing, Glynn County Police Chief John Powell and three former high-ranking officers were indicted in what investigators described as a cover-up of an officer’s sexual relationship with an informant.
Officers calling the DA for guidance is not unusual. But there´s disagreement over what happened next.
Just days after Arbery’s killing, Glynn County Police Chief John Powell (pictured) and three former officers were indicted in what officials described as a cover-up of an officer’s sexual relationship with an informant
Peter Murphy, an elected commissioner in Glynn County, alleged that the DA’s office told police arrests weren’t necessary.
The district attorney’s office calls that a ‘malicious lie’ and says it was police who raised the self-defense angle.
Police say they were told the day of the shooting that more follow-up was needed but the McMichaels weren’t flight risks and could go home.
A second prosecutor brought in after the first recused herself quickly decided no charges were necessary. He was eventually removed over his own conflict of interest.
J. Tom Morgan, a former metro Atlanta district attorney, said it would be a ‘big misstep’ for the DA to advise police against arrests if officers decided a crime likely occurred.
‘I can’t imagine saying “stand down” … If police believe they have probable cause, I’m not going to second-guess them,’ Morgan said.
In any homicide, it’s important to interview witnesses immediately. If that was delayed because officers were told not to make arrests, it could make it harder for prosecutors to bring a successful murder case and easier for defense lawyers to argue the crime scene was tainted.
Bowling Green State University criminologist Philip Stinson said it appears investigators started with an assumption of justified shooting.
‘Because of all of the assumptions that are made, all of the steps in the investigation that are not taken, they made the job much more difficult for the AG’s office,’ Stinson said.
Glynn County Police Department has been plagued with multiple scandals with 17 lawsuits against the force in the last decade