SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) – When white men armed with rifles chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery As he ran through their neighborhood, few outside the port city of Brunswick, Georgia, initially paid much attention.
A year later, while three men await trial on February 23, 2020, those closest to the 25-year-old black man tried to ensure that Arbery’s death is not overlooked again.
Arbery’s mother filed a civil suit on Tuesday, accusing the men accused of her son’s death and the local authorities who first responded to the shooting of violating his civil rights. The complaint filed by Wanda Cooper-Jones in the US court claims $ 1 million. Lawyers for the men charged with the murder of Arbery say they suspected he was a burglar and committed no crimes.
Members of Arbery’s family in Brunswick were expected to take part in a memorial procession in the subdivision of Satilla Shores on Tuesday night, where he fell bleeding in the street from three short-range rifle blasts. Other family members planned a candlelight vigil at a church in Waynesboro, where Arbery is buried in his mother’s hometown. At the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, Democratic lawmakers joined civil rights activists to celebrate the anniversary.
“It’s important to remind people of the origins when it all started,” said Jason Vaughn, Arbery’s high school soccer coach and organizer of the Brunswick event. “For a long time it was like we were shouting in the dark and nobody was listening.”
Immediately after the shooting, the police interviewed the men who were chasing Arbery and let them roam free. The first prosecutor assigned to the case saw no reason to press charges. The arguments for justice by Arbery’s family went largely unheard of as Georgia and the nation went into lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic.
Arbery had been dead for more than two months when a cell phone video of the May 5 shooting was leaked online and a nationwide outrage erupted. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case the next day and quickly arrested the shooter, Travis McMichael; his father, Greg McMichael; and neighbor Roddie Bryan for murder.
Outrage over Arbery’s murder was still simmering when a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd on May 25, sparking protests in the US denouncing racial injustice.
In Brunswick, Arbery’s death has shaken many residents, both black and white, that they need to be more active in holding elected officials to account, Reverend John Perry said. He was serving as president of the Brunswick NAACP department at the time of the assassination. Now he is running to become the next mayor of the city.
“Before, we chose people for office and trusted them to do the right thing,” Perry said. “Failure to do justice in the Ahmaud situation said we needed to do more as citizens.”
In November, voters angry about Arbery’s death deposed prosecutor Jackie JohnsonGreg McMichael had worked as an investigator for Johnson, who many blamed for playing a role in the delayed arrests, an accusation she denies.
Meanwhile, Republican Governor Brian Kemp is asking Georgia’s lawmakers to almost eliminate an 1863 state law empowering private citizens to make arrests.The prosecutor first assigned to the Arbery case cited the law at the conclusion of the murder.
The McMichaels’ lawyers have said they were chasing Arbery for suspecting he was a burglar, after security cameras previously recorded him entering a house under construction. They say Travis McMichael shot Arbery fearing for his life while wrestling over a shotgun. It was Bryan, the third defendant, who took the cell phone video of the shooting from the driver’s seat of his pickup truck.
Prosecutors have said Arbery didn’t steal anything and was just jogging when the McMichaels and Bryan chased him. They remain trapped without a bond.
The anniversary march and memorial run was hosted by the 2:23 Foundation, a group founded by Vaughn and Arbery’s cousin, Demetris Frazier, to combat systemic racism.
The foundation worked last fall to register 18-year-old high school students to vote. Now its members and other local activists are lobbying for the establishment of a citizen review panel for the Glynn County Police Department, which initially responded to Arbery’s murder.
Vaughn, who coached Arbery at Brunswick High School, said planning for the anniversary is stressful. For him, Arbery’s murder remains painfully fresh.
“You want to make sure you keep Ahmaud’s name alive, but it’s like reading an obituary over and over again,” Vaughn said. It’s like reliving the past all over again. You have to stay strong. “