BRUNSWICK, Ga.— The three white men convicted of murder in Ahmaud Arbery’s fatal shooting were found guilty of federal hate crimes Tuesday for violating Arbery’s civil rights and targeting him because he was Black.
The jury also found father and son Greg and Travis McMichael and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan guilty of attempted kidnapping, and the McMichaels guilty of the use of a firearm in the commission of a violent crime.
The verdict was a symbolic one, coming just months after all three defendants were convicted of murder in a Georgia state court and sentenced to life in prison — for the McMichaels without the possibility of parole and for Bryant, only after he has served 30 years. But family and community members viewed the hate crimes trial as an important statement that racism motivated the killing.
Shortly after the verdict was read, Arbery’s parents emerged from the courthouse holding hands with attorney Ben Crump, then raised their clasped hands to cheers from supporters.
“Ahmaud will continue to rest in peace. But he will now begin to rest in power,” said Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones. But, she added, “We as a family will never get victory because Ahmaud is gone forever.”
During the trial, prosecutors showed roughly two dozen text messages and social media posts in which Travis McMichael and Bryan used racist slurs and made derogatory comments about Black people. The FBI wasn’t able to access Greg McMichael’s phone because it was encrypted.
The McMichaels grabbed guns and jumped in a pickup truck to pursue Arbery after seeing him running in their neighborhood outside the Georgia port city of Brunswick in February 2020. Bryan joined the pursuit in his own pickup and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery. The killing became part of a larger national reckoning on racial injustice after the graphic video leaked online two months later.
