Ahmaud Arbery’s estate filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Georgia county where he was killed and a host of law enforcement officers there on Tuesday, the first anniversary of his murder.
The crux of the lawsuit is that officials illegally delegated the killers of the 25-year-old black man and covered up his death.
Arbery was on the street in Glynn County, Georgia, when three white men chased him down and shot him dead; Travis McMichael, accused of firing the fatal shot, allegedly used a racial slur while standing next to his body.
The three men facing murder charges in the murder, Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryant, are also named as defendants in Tuesday’s lawsuit. All three have pleaded not guilty to murder.
The lawsuit alleges that Glynn County District Attorney Jackie Johnson, also named in the lawsuit, personally knew Gregory McMichael, a former police officer and investigator at that office, and intervened to prevent officers from arresting the trio after the Arbery’s death.
The lawsuit goes on to allege that McMichaels and Bryan, who are civilians, had been unlawfully delegated by the Glynn County Police Department to protect the construction lot that Arbery visited before he was killed.
While Gregory McMichael was an investigator in Johnson’s office, the lawsuit also claims that she personally intervened to restore her powers to carry out arrests without going through the necessary training.
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