Man who filmed Ahmaud Arbery video in 'complete shock' over incident, fiancee says they're 'scared' to go home
William Roddy Bryan, the man who recorded Ahmaud Arbery's viral shooting video, has finally spoken out after coming under heavy scrutiny for allegedly being a part of the crime.
Bryan, in an interview with a local television outlet, on Monday, May 11, claimed that he was a spectator of the tragedy and was in "complete shock" after witnessing the deadly confrontation.
A father and son duo, 64-year-old Gregory McMichael — a former police officer — and 34-year-old Travis McMichael, shot 25-year-old Arbery dead on February 23 on a street in broad daylight while he was jogging. The pair reportedly suspected him to be a burglar running around the neighborhood. Arbery was shot at least twice and was reported dead on the scene. After a video of the assault was recently 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.
"I have never been involved in anything like that before," Bryan said of the fatal shooting, according to WJAX-TV. Bryan's attorney, Kevin Gough, has stated that his client only drove to the scene of the incident after he saw a commotion from his home.
"It's not a surprise that if people are seeing something that doesn't look right, that they would look into it," Gough said of Bryan.
Bryan spoke out days after Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, stated that she wanted Bryan to be charged in the murder case too.
"While he was videoing, he should have been trying to, to aid in a situation and maybe he would have stepped in a little. He's still with us today," Jones said.
However, Bryan insists he is innocent. "I had nothing to do with it," he told WJAX. "I am trying to get my life back to normal, and it's been smeared for the last week. Um, I was told I was a witness and I am not sure what I am."
Meanwhile, Bryan's fiancee, Amy Elrod, in a statement to CNN, said that Bryan has lost his job amid the uproar over the shooting and the couple are scared to go home.
"He lost his job because of all the threats, the untruths, and it's hurtful," Elrod told the outlet. "It's just hard to deal with. It's terrible because we were scared to go home."
"I mean, we're living out of my car pretty much right now because we can't go home. If we do go home, we've got to run in, grab clothes, and then leave again because we feel like our home is not safe," she added.
"We can't celebrate Mother's Day with my family and that's very difficult but then Mrs Arbery not being able to celebrate her child, a young man, it's a terrible situation. My heart breaks for them. It's a terrible tragedy."
Bryan, who claimed that he had been receiving death threats after the video became viral, is also under investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) in connection to Arbery's murder case.
The video of the shooting was a key piece of evidence in the case, GBI Director Vic Reynolds noted. He revealed that Bryan, a neighbor and a friend of Travis McMichael, was also under investigation by the agency after calls for his arrest were made by the victim's family.