The father and son, along with their friend, have been accused of federal hate crimes on top of their murder charges over the killing of Ahmaud Arbery.
65-year-old Gregory McMichael and 35-year-old Travis McMichael from Georgia have had their rap sheet extended as they got slapped with federal hate crimes charges over the 2020 murder of 25-year-old Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery.
Meanwhile, 51-year-old William ‘Roddie’ Bryan, a friend of the McMichael family, has also been slapped with the same federal charge after filming his friends confronting the unsuspecting jogger back in February 2020.
On top of the existing murder charges and the newly-added hate crime charges, the father and son have also been charged with using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.
Ahmaud Arbery was fatally shot last year while jogging in a Brunswick neighborhood where the McMichaels lived.
The father and son reportedly confronted the young man and accused him of being a burglar. According to the prosecutors, Travis was the one who shot Arbery with his shotgun after Bryan blocked the jogger from escaping with his truck.
For months, the trio evaded justice by claiming they were attacked by Arbery after attempting to make a citizen’s arrest on suspicion that the jogger was a burglar. Eventually, however, footage of the confrontation surfaced and the three men were arrested.
Following their arrest, both the father and the son as well as Bryan denied felony murder charges, whereas their attorneys have yet to respond to the newly-added federal hate crime charges.
As of this writing, the trio remains in jail awaiting the murder trial for which the date has yet to be set.
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