It’s not exactly new information that Gregory McMichael, a former Georgia cop, is accused of hunting down Ahmaud Arbery on the suspicion he was trespassing and having his son Travis shoot and kill the man. But Gregory’s daughter, Lindsay McMichael, had largely been overlooked in the incident until The Sun newspaper caught on to rumors in the community that she had posted a picture of Arbery's bloody body on Snapchat. After obtaining the photo in question, Lindsay McMichael confirmed her involvement. She told the newspaper she “had no nefarious or malicious intent” when she posted the picture.
“The thing is I’m a huge fan of true crime – I listen to four or five podcasts a week – I’m constantly watching that sort of thing,” she said. “It was more of a, ‘Holy s***, I can’t believe this has happened.’”
In her interview with The Sun, Lindsay called her decision “absolutely poor judgment" but defended her father and brother as people who are not racists. She claimed they never “meant to kill anybody” and they always "loved" her boyfriends who weren’t white.
It’s unclear if she will face charges in the incident. “At this time, we’re not making any further comments about the investigation because it is very active. Any updates that we deem appropriate will be shared,” said Nelly Miles, a spokeswoman for the investigating agency, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
It is also unclear if William "Roddie" Bryan, a witness in the incident, will face charges. He filmed select moments of the deadly encounter, and the Arbery family’s legal team has been pushing officials to arrest him. Bryan’s attorney Kevin Gough told reporters Monday night Bryan took a polygraph test, and the results confirmed he was unarmed at the time of the shooting and had not had any conversation with the two men accused of murdering Arbery.
Gough said Bryan is only a witness in the case and not a "vigilante," but he still has been the target of death threats. Gough addressed Arbery’s family attorneys Lee Merritt and Benjamin Crump directly in his plea for them to “please stop doing and saying things that place the lives of Roddie and his family in danger.”
“Whether you realize it or not, y’all have put a target on his back,” Gough said. “He is unarmed and defenseless.”
Merritt took a moment on Twitter to remind Gough who the real victim in Arbery’s case is. “On 2/23/20 William ‘Roddy’ Bryan jumped in his truck & chased #AhmaudArbery around Satilla Shores, GA— recording as Travis McMichael shot him to death,” Merritt said in the tweet. “I wish Ahmaud’s mom could have told him ‘please stop.’ Her son was ‘unarmed and defenseless.’ We will stop when he’s in jail.”
The Arbery case, now on its fourth prosecutor, dragged along for 74 days before Gregory and Travis McMichael were arrested on murder and aggravated assault charges. The delay happened even though authorities saw Bryan’s shooting footage the same day of Arbery’s death, according to the GBI.
Hundreds of protesters marched Saturday in Brunswick, Georgia, to call for the resignations of two district attorneys being investigated on prosecutorial misconduct allegations in the case.
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Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson, whose office formerly employed Gregory, immediately recused herself from the case but not before eliciting the help of George Barnhill, another prosecutor with ties to Gregory, according to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s request for a Georgia Bureau of Investigation probe. Barnhill, district attorney for Georgia’s Waycross Judicial Circuit, has a son serving as assistant district attorney in Johnson’s office, and he worked with Gregory on a prosecution involving Arbery, Carr said in his request.
The next district attorney assigned to the case, Tom Durden, opted out in favor of an office with more resources handling the prosecution, Carr said. Cobb County District Attorney Joyette Holmes, the first Black woman to serve in the role, is prosecuting the case now. "I'm thankful for the newly appointed prosecutor, Joyette Holmes, and her efforts to help us fight for #JusticeForAhmaud and his family," Crump tweeted Monday.
The public has been less trusting of other authorities in the Arbery case, and rightfully so. It was Glynn County police officer Robert Rash who practically gave Gregory McMichael permission to take the law into his own hands even though Gregory apparently didn't even have the proper credentials when he did work as an investigator for the Brunswick district attorney's office, 11 Alive reported.
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Still, it was Arbery who was treated like a criminal when surveillance camera footage only captured him walking into a home under construction, and not taking anything. Additional footage Merritt tweeted Friday even revealed Arbery wasn’t the only one who went inside the home. “NEW VIDEO shows there were frequent visitors on the construction site where Ahmaud was seen leaving on the day he was killed both day & night,” Merritt tweeted. “Ahmaud Arbery seems to be the only one who was presumed to be a criminal and ultimately the only one murdered based on that presumption.”