Ahmaud Arbery: New video shows Georgia jogger at construction site minutes before he was chased and shot dead
BRUNSWICK, GEORGIA: Agents with the Georgia Board of Investigation (GBI) looking into the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery are reviewing additional footage from the Glynn County neighborhood shot minutes before his death.
Investigators are reviewing the tape, obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, to piece together the events leading up to Gregory and Travis McMichael confronting and shooting Arbery on February 23.
It appears to have been taken from a home security camera installed at a house around a block from the shooting and shows a man wearing a white shirt and shorts, believed to be Arbery, walking down Satilla Drive.
The man then walks into the garage of a house under construction and around the back, with the tape indicating that he was on the site for less than five minutes. While he was out of view for much of this time, it did not seem like he had taken anything.
Soon after this man enters the property, another man wearing overalls walks near a stand of trees across the street from the site and appears to be observing the construction site.
Around a minute later, after a car passes, a figure that is believed to be Arbery comes out of the front door of the house quickly and runs down the road in the direction of Travis McMichael's home.
The video, which investigators confirmed was part of the case file entered by the GBI, seemingly describes a witness report made to the police on a 911 call at 1:08 pm the same day.
"There's a guy in the house right now, a house under construction," the caller says, adding that the property was at 219 or 220 Satilla Drive, which would be around 500 yards from the home where the shooters lived.
When the operator asks if someone was breaking in, the caller responds, "No, it's all open, it's under construction. And he's running right now, there he goes right now."
The caller goes on to say that he saw the suspicious man "running down the street" and claims he had seen the man previously in the neighborhood as well.
"He's been caught on the camera a bunch before at night," they tell the operator. "It's kind of an ongoing thing out here."
Questioned about his appearance so someone can be sent down to "check it out," the caller says, "Black guy, white t-shirt. And he's gone running back into the neighborhood."
According to a police report obtained by ABC News, Travis had also called police on Feb 11 -- 12 days before the shooting -- to report seeing a black man in a house nearby that was under construction.
A former Fulton County prosecutor who reviewed the video said it did not seem to change the criminal questions being asked of the McMichaels, with lawyers for Arbery's family similarly stating that it did not change the case.
"This video is consistent with the evidence already known to us. Ahmaud Arbery was out for a jog," they said. "He stopped by a property under construction where he engaged in no illegal activity and remained for only a brief period. Ahmaud did not take anything from the construction site. He did not cause any damage to the property. He remained for a brief period of time and was not instructed by anyone to leave but rather left on his own accord to continue his jog."
"Ahmaud’s actions at this empty home under construction were in no way a felony under Georgia law," the statement continued. "This video confirms that Mr. Arbery’s murder was not justified and the actions of the men who pursued him and ambushed him were unjustified. We reiterate, Ahmaud Arbery did not take part in ANY felony, had no illegal substances in his system, was not armed yet was shot three times with a shotgun at close range."
Addressing the video, the 25-year-old's father Marcus Arbery Sr said, "If he committed a crime, why don’t you call the authorities? But you came at him like you were hunting an animal."
The McMichaels were arrested and charged with murder on Thursday, May 7, and are in jail after they were denied bond during an initial court appearance conducted over video the next day.