Man Who Took Video of Ahmaud Arbery’s Shooting Will Also Be Investigated, Georgia Official Says

The director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Friday it will continue investigating the death of Ahmaud Arbery, including the man who filmed the incident in a video.

Director Vic Reynolds said that video, which has spread widely on social media, was a key piece of evidence in the case in which two white men are seen chasing Arbery down on a residential street in southern Georgia.

He said it took 36 hours from the time the bureau began assisting in the probe to arrest the father and son, Gregory and Travis McMichael, who are accused of shooting Arbery, who was black. There were “some things that needed to be done” in the investigation that had been led by Atlantic Judicial Circuit District Attorney Tom Durden since April 14, he said.

“We are going to go wherever the evidence takes us,” Reynolds said Friday during a news conference. “In a perfect world, we would have preferred to have been asked to become involved in February, of course.”

An attorney for Arbery’s family has called for William “Roddie” Bryan, the man who filmed the incident, to be arrested. Reynolds said investigators are looking into that.

The GBI announced Wednesday it would begin aiding the investigation at Durden’s request. By Thursday evening, the McMichaels were in custody of the Glynn County Police and charged with murder.

Arbery was killed in February about 2 miles from his home in a neighborhood outside Brunswick, Georgia. Gregory McMichael told police they saw him running and believed he was a burglary suspect, so he and his son armed themselves, got in a truck and followed him. They told police Arbery attacked them after one of them got out of the truck with a shotgun.

Arbery’s family and their attorneys say Arbery was out for a jog when he was killed. They believe he was the victim of racial profiling.

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