Security footage taken in the neighborhood where Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed in February shows the black jogger stopping at a house under construction just minutes before the fatal incident, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Gregory McMichael, who was arrested along with his son Travis on Thursday and charged with murder, told police that they followed Arbery because they believed he was a suspect in a recent string of burglaries and “further the suspect had been caught on surveillance video,” according to the police report.
The video, seen by the AJC, shows a man in shorts and a white T-shirt, believed to be Arbery, stopping at the house for about five minutes, most of which he is out of view. When he comes out of the house, he resumes his run and doesn’t appear to have taken anything.
The footage appears to match what McMichael told police and a 911 call received by Glynn County dispatchers saying a man was in the house, according to the AJC.
“And you said someone is breaking into it right now?” the dispatcher asks.
“No,” the caller responds. “It’s all open. It’s under construction. And he’s running right now! There he goes right now.”
“OK, what is he doing?” the dispatcher asks.
“He’s running down the street,” the caller responds.
About six minutes later, another call to 911 says, “There’s a black male running down the street.”
In the police report, Gregory McMichael tells police about a string of break-ins in the neighborhood and says he was in his front yard, a few houses further along the street from the home under construction, and “saw the suspect from the break-ins ‘hauling ass'” down the street. McMichael said he ran into his house and told his son Travis “the guy is running down the street, let’s go.” Both grabbed weapons — the father a .357 magnum and the son a shotgun — because they “didn’t know if the male was armed or not.”
Minutes later, the fatal confrontation takes place, which was filmed by a witness, as CrimeOnline has reported.
Although the McMichaels claim Arbery was a suspect in a string of burglaries, Glynn County police records show only one theft incident in the seven weeks leading up to the shooting — a handgun stolen from an unlocked truck on the McMichaels’s property.
Read all our reporting on this story here.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast. Listen to a related episode:
[Feature Photo: Ahmaud Arbery/Handout; Greg and Travis McMichael/Facebook]
