Ahmaud Arbery may have went to construction site for water before shooting
New video suggests slain Georgia jogger Ahmaud Arbery may have been getting a drink of water when he was spotted entering a construction site before he was shot dead, the property owner’s lawyer said Friday.
Attorney Elizabeth Graddy made the suggestion based on newly released security camera footage showing a man believed to be Arbery enter the under-construction home at least five separate times since last fall, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis, 34, were charged with fatally gunning down the 25-year-old African American man earlier this month after disturbing video footage emerged of the Feb. 23 killing.
A man believed to be Arbery was inside the construction site at around 1 p.m. moments before the McMichaels confronted him. The McMichaels said they chased him down with weapons because they believed he was a burglar, then the son shot him in a struggle over a shotgun.
Graddy, who represents property owner Larry English, said in a statement Friday that there were two water faucets on the site – one at the rear of the house and one on the side, the Journal-Constitution reported.
“Although these water sources do not appear within any of the cameras’ frames, the young man moves to and from their locations,” she told the paper after reviewing the new footage.
Most of the videos are short clips showing a person walking around inside and outside of the construction site in Brunswick.
The footage shows no evidence of theft and nothing was ever reported missing from the property, according to the newspaper.
In a Dec. 17 clip, a man the authorities believe is Arbery, wearing shorts and a tank top, leaves the construction site and enters Satilla Drive jogging.
On Feb. 11, the motion-activated cameras recorded a man who looked like Arbery sometime after 7 p.m. slowly walking through the house, the paper reported.
That night Travis McMichael was driving his red pickup truck past the construction site when he saw a man running into the house and called 911 to report a break-in. Police responded but didn’t find an intruder.
On an earlier occasion, the cameras recorded an unknown man and woman enter the property after 10 p.m. on Nov. 17, according to the newspaper.
The surveillance footage is part of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s case. The agency is still trying to confirm that Arbery is the same man repeatedly captured on video entering the property.
The legal team representing Arbery’s family told the Journal-Constitution that the new surveillance video is consistent with what is already known about the case.
“Ahmaud Arbery was out for a jog,” the legal team said in a statement. “He stopped by a property under construction where he engaged in no illegal activity and remained for only a brief period. Ahmaud did not take anything from the construction site. He did not cause any damage to the property.”
Source: Read Full Article