Ahmaud Arbery: No crime was committed at property jogger visited moments before his death, reveals owner
The owner of a home under construction where Ahmaud Arbery was spotted in surveillance camera footage just minutes before he was killed says he had reported no crime with respect to the young man trespassing his property.
The footage from February 23 appears to show Arbery looking around but not touching anything at the property, before eventually walking away.
"I don't want it to be put out and misused and misinterpreted for people to think that I had accused Mr Arbery of stealing or robbery, because I never did," Larry English, the homeowner, told CNN on May 12.
English's attorney Elizabeth Graddy noted that Arbery had already been killed "by the time Larry saw the video".
The 25-year-old was allegedly jogging in the Satilla Shores neighborhood outside Brunswick nearly two months ago when he was shot to death.
According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Greg McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis, 34, are now facing charges of felony murder and aggravated assault after their arrest.
During interrogation, Greg told authorities that there had been a number of burglaries in their neighborhood and that Arbery looked like a suspect they had captured on surveillance footage.
But police found that there was no string of break-ins reported in over seven weeks prior to Arbery's death. They said there was only one burglary report after a gun was allegedly stolen from an unlocked vehicle in front of the McMichael's residence.
However, it was a different video altogether that turned the Ahmaud Arbery killing into a nationwide outrage.
You can watch the video here.
That footage, released two months after Arbery's death, led thousands to take to the streets to protest how the case was handled by local authorities.
The graphic video, which lasts only 36 seconds and shows how Arbery was killed, was captured by McMichael's neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan.
Kevin Gough, Bryan's attorney, has said his client was just a bystander at the scene and had no relationship with the McMichaels. Gough also disputed McMichael's claim that Bryan was helping them try to head off the victim.
But Gough did not have an immediate answer when he was asked why Bryan did not call 911 after the shooting. In fact, he sidestepped the question to note that police "sirens were audible almost immediately."
According to the attorney, it was clear to everyone that the police were en route to the scene.
Ahmaud Arbery was described by his best friend as a "man of principles, loyalty, respect, and love."
"Ahmaud was the person that would call me periodically to check on me, see how I was doing," Akeem Baker told CNN. "We would just share our stories together, we would just talk about dreams, just achieving in life. He always spoke about how we would both be at the top together someway, somehow, someday. "
Baker also recalled how his best friend would tell him he loved him at the end of every conversation they had.
"He'd say 'I love you, bro.' He spoke those words, 'I love you,' to everyone he came across," Baker said.