The circumstances surrounding the violent death of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery continues to baffle the masses. The young, black Georgia resident was reportedly jogging through his neighborhood in Glynn County back in February when he was spotted by father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael, respectively. They grabbed their guns, got into their vehicle, and chased Ahmaud for several minutes before gunning him down in the street.
While this ongoing case continues to unfold, new information has surfaced. Bodycam footage from a Glynn County officer has circulated showing an incident involving Ahmaud Arbery from 2017. Back then, he was reportedly sitting in his vehicle at a local park listening to music when police approached him and asked him to get out. During the encounter, Ahmaud seemed irritated that he was being targeted when he didn't do anything wrong, so an officer decided to tase him. It didn't work.
“The same reason that Ahmaud Arbery was killed was the same reason he was stopped in that park: it was the criminalization of blackness itself,” the Arbery family's attorney S. Lee Merritt stated today (May 19). “They saw a black man alone in the park and they said, ‘You know what, this appears suspicious.’” Watch the video of the 2017 incident below.