Three US men charged with federal hate crimes over Black man murder

Three American men have been charged with hate crime and kidnapping, one year after they killed him as he was jogging in a neighborhood in Georgia. 

The Justice Department announced Wednesday that the men — Gregory McMichael, his son Travis, and William Bryan — were indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with one count of interference with rights and one count of attempted kidnapping in connection to the killing of Ahmaud Arbery.

Arbery, 25, was out for a jog in Georgia in February last year when he was chased down in a truck by three men and fatally shot.

Two of the three men — Gregory and Travis McMichael — claimed to be conducting a citizen's arrest and acted in self-defense.

A third man, Bryan, who recorded video of the black man’s death, allegedly hit Arbery with his truck.

The two McMichaels were also charged with firearms violations.

The Justice Department said, “Travis and Gregory McMichael were also charged with one count each of using, carrying, and brandishing — and in Travis’s case, discharging — a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.”

It said that the men’s acts were viewed as hate crimes because the defendants reportedly "used force and threats of force to intimidate and interfere with Arbery’s right to use a public street because of his race." 

A trial date has yet to be set for the three men, who were not initially arrested or charged. 

It was almost three months after Arbery’s death that a video they took of their pursuit of the man, leaked out and sparked outrage.

Earlier this year, the victim’s mother, Wanda Cooper filed a $1 million civil suit against the three men as well as local police and prosecutors who she said tried to cover up the murder.

In response to the indictment, she told CNN, "It's one step closer to justice.”

"They did the investigation properly and they came out with those indictments. So, my family and I were pleased.” she added.

Attorneys for Travis McMichael, however, said in a statement "we are deeply disappointed that the Justice Department bought the false narrative that the media and state prosecutors have promulgated.”

The Arbery case was one of several that fueled mass protests last year across the United States against police abuse of Black Americans.

The protests were ignited by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last May.

Civil rights advocates denounced Arbery’s tragic death as the case of white perpetrators killing a Black man and going unpunished.

A Democratic congresswoman said last week that Black people are traumatized in the US.

Ayanna Pressley made the remarks after Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, was found guilty for Floyd’s death.

Chauvin was found guilty of all the three criminal counts he was facing. He faces up to 40 years in prison for second-degree murder, up to 25 years for third-degree murder and up to 10 years for second-degree manslaughter.

Pressley, however, said that the “outcome of the Derek Chauvin trial doesn’t change things for us, because Black people are still being killed by police.”

Analysts say the surge in violence against people of color in the US is a systemic problem rooted in the legacy of slavery and legalized segregation in the country.

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