Georgia’s attorney general has requested that the Justice Department probe how local authorities handled the case of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was reportedly out for a jog when he was shot dead by two white men who were not arrested for two months.
Attorney General Chris Carr made the formal request to federal authorities on Sunday.
“We are committed to a complete and transparent review of how the Ahmaud Arbery case was handled from the outset,” Carr said in a statement. “The family, the community and the state of Georgia deserve answers, and we will work with others in law enforcement at the state and federal level to find those answers.”
Arbery was shot and killed on February 23 as he went on a jog in the Satilla Shores neighborhood of Brunswick, Georgia. Footage of the incident, released last week by lawyers for Arbery’s family, shows Arbery jogging as a pickup truck blocks his way. He runs around the truck, and a scuffle between Arbery and one of the men can be seen before gunshots are heard and Arbery falls to the ground.
The video sparked national outrage and was followed by the arrests of Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis McMichael, 34, who were taken into custody last week and charged with murder and aggravated assault. The elder McMichael said he believed Arbery to be a burglary suspect who had targeted the neighborhood recently.
Their arrests came a day after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation began an investigation.
“We need to know exactly what happened,” Carr said in a Saturday tweet.