William 'Roddie' Bryan: Suspect in Ahmaud Arbery murder case wants bail, cites George Floyd and Breonna Taylor cops
A suspect in the Georgia shooting that killed an unarmed Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery believes that it's 'manifestly unjust' that he is being held without bail. The suspect, William 'Roddie' Bryan, had recorded the four-minute video of Arbery's slaying, which went viral across social media and sparked outrage. The video showed and captured the fatal shooting of Arbery on February 23 in Glynn County, Georgia. He is one of the three men who are currently awaiting trial on murder charges.
He had also drawn a comparison to the cops involved in the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks who walked free. According to Bryan, he is being unfairly treated by being held while the suspects in the high profile, racially charged police shooting cases have all been granted bonds as they await trial, TMZ reported.
Bryan made these claims in court papers which also state that he was "armed only with a cell phone and located more than 50 feet from Mr Arbery at the time of the shooting", but is languishing in Glynn County Detention Center, the publication stated.
The authorities had shared that Bryan, Gregory McMichael and his son Travis McMichael had chased Arbery, 25, and claimed that they believed he was a local burglar before Travis shot him with a shotgun. The police say that Bryan had used his pickup truck to try and trap Arbery and had also struck him with the truck in an attempt to stop him from running.
Arbery was shot least thrice and was reported dead on the scene. The killing was captured on video by McMichael's neighbor Bryan who was trailing Arbery in a car. After the video of the assault was released on social media, the incident sparked a widespread racial outcry in the country and has led many to question why the suspects were arrested only after the outrage. No arrests were made in the case for over two months.
Bryan along with Gregory and Travis were each charged with four counts of felony murder, one count of false imprisonment, one count of malice murder, two counts of aggravated assault and one count of criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.
Bryan has been in jail since being arrested on May 21. According to his lawyer, Bryan poses much less of a threat to flee and is no danger to the community. The lawyer believes that he should be granted bail as he awaits his trial. During a hearing which had taken place in July, Bryan was denied bail.
In other cases such as George Floyd's death, four former Minneapolis police officers charged are all free on a bond including Derek Chauvin who faces murder charges in the case. He was released on a bond of $1M. In the case of Breonna Taylor's death, detective Brett Hankison was released on a $15,000 bail on weapons charges related to a botched up police raid which left Taylor, 26, dead.
The two other cops who were involved in the raid — Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove — were not charged. In the case of Rayshard Brooks, the former Atalanta police officer, Garrett Rolfe, is free on a $500,000 bond.