The man who recorded the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery has been arrested and charged with felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Thursday in a press release.
William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. filmed the graphic video of Arbery’s death on Feb. 23, and is now the third person arrested in connection with the fatal shooting.
Investigators believe Bryan, 50, used a vehicle to try to “confine and detain” Arbery in the minutes leading up to the shooting, CNN reported.
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Bryan’s arrest came two weeks after Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis McMichael, 34, were apprehended and charged with murder and aggravated assault in the case.
The video, which was recorded on Bryan’s phone, showed Arbery trying to jog around the McMichaels’ truck and being shot three times before collapsing in the street.
???????????????? now let’s get a conviction. ONWARD ??
— KCole (@KCole326) May 21, 2020
The 32 seconds of footage that were posted online shocked the nation and sparked outcry from public officials and celebrities, including LeBron James who weighed in on the matter and said African Americans are “literally hunted” when they go outside.
Attorneys for Arbery’s parents are glad Bryan was finally arrested. “We called for his arrest from the very beginning of this process,” attorneys S. Lee Merritt, Benjamin Crump, and L. Chris Stewart, said in a statement.
“I can say Wanda Cooper and Marcus Arbery were very, very relieved to see this arrest finally take place. Not only have we been waiting since the McMichaels were arrested, they have been waiting for three months for all three of these men to be brought into custody,” Merritt told CNN’s Don Lemon Thursday night.
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Bryan’s attorneys have maintained that their client is innocent of any wrongdoing and are claiming that he had no prior contact or plan with the McMichaels prior to the shooting.
Additional details emerged earlier this week about the shooting, and revealed that the 25-year-old jogger was chased for “over four minutes,” before he was shot and killed, as Urban Hollywood 411 previously reported.