On Tuesday, the mother of Ahmaud Arbery filed a federal civil suit alleging that Glynn County, Georgia, and two local prosecutors conspired a cover-up to protect the men who killed her son.
In the suit, Wanda Cooper-Jones claims that the police department and officials with the Brunswick County District Attorney’s Office attempted to portray Arbery as a violent criminal to protect Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan and clear them of any wrongdoing.
She is seeking $1 million in damages.
“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 Cooper-Jones.
Arbery, 25, was shot to death last February while jogging in a neighborhood outside Brunswick, Georgia. He was pursued by two white men, the McMichael’s, in a pickup truck.
None of the men were arrested or charged with a crime until May, despite Gregory admitting to police that Travis was responsible for the shooting. The men claimed to have targeted Arbery because he resembled a suspect who had committed burglaries in the area.
That month, the McMichael’s were charged with aggravated assault and murder. Bryan also was arrested in connection with Arbery’s death and charged with murder and attempted false imprisonment.
“Justice for this family looks like going after the system that justified it, that allowed these men (the McMichaels and Bryan) to run free for months, that failed to prosecute properly, that offered racist explanations or why the shooting was justified,” Merritt told ABC News. “That’s George Barnhill, Jackie Johnson, the entire Glynn County PD. Miss Cooper is a fighter, and she’s instructed us to take no stops on the road to justice.”
