Video footage of the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery by two white men as he was jogging in a southeast Georgia neighborhood has widely circulated the web, leading to grief, outrage and the delayed arrest of the suspects.
While the incident happened in late February, the suspects were not arrested until after the footage was seen by the general public last week in a curious attempt by a criminal defense lawyer to clear the air about the men who targeted the then 25-year-old in the court of public opinion.
The lawyer is Alan Tucker, and he leaked the video of Travis McMichael, 34, and his father Gregory McMichael, 64, confronting Arbery, who was as attempting to run past a white truck, to WGIG, a local radio station in Brunswick, Ga. He obtained the footage from Roddie Bryan, the man who trailed Arbery and recorded the deadly episode on his cellphone, according to The New York Times.
READ MORE: Candace Owens argues Ahmaud Arbery shooting isn’t about race, draws outrage
Tucker had informally consulted the McMichaels on the issue prior to leaking the video, the report said. He told the paper that his intentions were to dispel rumors about the characters of the McMichaels.
“It wasn’t two men with a Confederate flag in the back of a truck going down the road and shooting a jogger in the back,” Mr. Tucker said.
“It got the truth out there as to what you could see,” he continued. “My purpose was not to exonerate them or convict them.”
READ MORE: Online pages emerge in support of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder suspects
Bryan had recorded the incident from his vehicle with a camera phone, revealing Arbery jogging down the road until he got to a white pick-up truck with the McMichaels inside. The video shows Arbery wrestling with Travis until three gunshots are heard. Within seconds, Arbery fell to his death as the three men watch. The 36-second video cuts off afterward.
The footage was captured by Bryan on Feb. 23. However, according to Bryan’s lawyer, Kevin Gough, he gave the video to the police prior to the leak and was cooperating with authorities. Bryan will also be investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, USA Today reports.
“Mr. Bryan has never tried to hide anything from anybody,” Gough stated. “If anybody wanted a copy of the video, he would give it to them.”
Arbery would have turned 26 on Friday. Many people have commemorated his tragic death by running 2.23 miles to represent the day that he died.