A Georgia judge denied bond Friday for the father and son charged with murder in the February slaying of Ahmaud Arbery.
Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley said he’s concerned that Gregory McMichael and his adult son, Travis McMichael, took the law into their own hands and endangered neighbors when they pursued the 25-year-old Black man with guns and shot him in a residential street.
Defense attorneys say the McMichaels had reason to suspect Arbery was a burglar and Travis McMichael was defending himself when he shot Arbery in the port city of Brunswick.
In this image made from video, from left, father and son, Gregory and Travis McMichael, accused in the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia on Feb. 2020, speak to each other via closed circuit tv in the Glynn County Detention center in Brunswick, Ga., on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020. The McMichaels chased and fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, after they spotted him running in their neighborhood just outside the port city of Brunswick. (AP PhotoLewis Levine)
FILE - This booking photo provided by the Glynn County Sheriff's Office shows William "Roddie" Bryan Jr., who was jailed Thursday, May 21, 2020, in Brunswick, Ga., on charges of felony murder and attempted false imprisonment. A judge has denied bond to Bryanm one of three white men charged with murder in the slaying of Ahmaud Arbery while the Black man was running in a neighborhood near Georgia’s coast. (Glynn County Sheriff's Office via AP)
In this May 17, 2020, photo, a recently painted mural of Ahmaud Arbery is on display in Brunswick, Ga., where the 25-year-old man was shot and killed in February. It was painted by Miami artist Marvin Weeks. (AP PhotoSarah Blake Morgan)