Ahmaud Arbery’s mother filed a federal civil suit Tuesday alleging that police in Glynn County, Georgia, and two local prosecutors conspired to cover up Arbery’s murder and protect the men involved in his death, reports NBC News.
The suit seeks $1 million in damages and claims that the police department and officials with the Brunswick County District Attorney’s Office worked together to paint Arbery as a violent criminal and absolve Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael and their neighbor William Bryan of wrongdoing.
“There existed a vast conspiracy between law enforcement officials and agencies not only in covering up evidence to arrest Ahmaud’s killers, but also covering up evidence that would directly implicate law enforcement in the murder,” read a statement from Lee Merritt, the attorney for Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper.
Arbery, 25, was jogging in Brunswick, Georgia, on Feb. 23, 2020, when, authorities say, he stopped to check out a house that was under construction. The McMichaels, who were armed, followed him, and Travis Michael is accused of shooting him. The McMichaels told police that they thought Arbery was a burglar and that Travis McMichael shot him after Arbery “violently attacked.” Bryan is alleged to have joined the McMichaels to help trap Arbery, according to the Glynn County police report. Bryan recorded the killing.
“The cover-up of Ahmaud’s murder began the moment that uniformed Glynn Police Department personnel arrived at the crime scene,” the suit says.
The men were not arrested when police arrived. That, the suit alleges, was part of privileges given to the McMichaels thanks to Gregory’s deep connections with Glynn County police and the Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office.
The Brunswick News reported that Gregory was a police officer there for seven years and an investigator with the district attorney’s office for decades. In the months beforehand, Glynn County police Officer Robert Rash, who is also named in the suit, had given Gregory permission to act as law enforcement in guarding a nearby home under construction, according to the complaint. The complaint alleges that the father-son duo believed that they were acting “on behalf and under the cover of Glynn County police.”
