Ahmaud Arbery: Trump says there could be more to the brutal killing as 'things went off tape'
President Donald Trump on Friday, May 8, spoke out on the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, but his take was still not completely in favor of the slain black youth. While he called the incident “heartbreaking”, he also suspected that there could be “something” that the video did not show. The murder of Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia, in late February has bounced back into the headlines after a short video was released in social media showing an unarmed jogging black man being chased by two men in a pickup truck and shot more than once.
The incident caused such an outrage that two white men accused of shooting Arbery, father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael, were arrested. They face murder and aggravated assault charges.
Trump, who was speaking on Fox & Friends, said, “I saw the tape and it’s very, very disturbing the tape. I got to see it, it’s very disturbing. I looked at a picture of that young man, he was in a tuxedo, and in fact you put it up, and I will say that looks like a really good young guy.” But while he called it a ‘very disturbing situation’ and ‘heartbreaking’, he also added: “You know, it could be something that we didn’t see on tape.”
“There could be a lot of… if you saw things went off tape and then back on tape, but it was troubling, I mean, to anybody that watched it, certainly it was a disturbing or troubling video, no question about that,” Trump said, continuing, “But they have very good law enforcement in the state of Georgia and I’m sure they are going to come up with exactly what happened. It’s a sad thing. Very sad thing. I hate to see that.”
Georgia is a red state which has been voting for the Republicans in presidential elections since 1996. In 2016, Trump beat Hillary Clinton by more than five percent in the state.
Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee who Trump will face in the November election, called the incident a cold-blooded murder.
Brunswick District Attorney accused of blocking cops from arresting duo immediately
Meanwhile, the issue witnessed another outrage after it was reported that Brunswick District Attorney (DA) Jackie Johnson blocked the police from making arrests immediately after the shooting. Two county commissioners revealed it on Friday with one even accusing the duo of being in cahoots since they were friends. Gregory is a retired cop who had worked as an investigator for the DA's office.
Glynn County Commissioner Peter Murphy told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) that police officers who were at the scene of the shooting felt they had probable cause to make the arrests but Johnson’s office asked them to stop.
“They spoke to an assistant, who relayed their request to [Glynn County District Attorney] Jackie Johnson,” Murphy told AJC, adding, “They were told not to make the arrest.”
Allen Booker, a second county commissioner, told the paper that the DA stopped the police from making the arrests to protect her friend. Johnson recused herself from handling the case a few days ago after the incident happened.
Her office refuted the allegations and counter blamed the police department.
Gregory, 64, and Travis, 34, were arrested on Thursday and made their first court appearance individually on Friday afternoon through a video link from inside the Glynn County jail.