Attorneys for Gregory McMichael say Ahmaud Arbery killing ‘not another act of violent racism’

Attorneys for Gregory McMichael, one of the men charged in the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, said Friday that “a very different narrative” will be revealed when all the facts come out.

“The truth will reveal that this is not another act of violent racism,” Frank Hogue said at a news conference. “Greg McMichael did not commit murder.”

Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis McMichael, 34, are charged with aggravated assault and felony murder in the February 23 death of Arbery, who was killed while jogging just outside Brunswick, Georgia. Travis McMichael is the alleged shooter in the case.

Hogue, along with his wife, Laura Hogue, are representing Gregory McMichael. The couple are part of a criminal defense law firm in Macon, Georgia.

“Our client has not been charged the same as his son,” Laura Hogue said. “He’s been charged as a party to the crime, which is a Georgia statute that holds an individual who aids or abets or facilitates a crime, with the same responsibility as the individual who actually perpetrated the crime.”

The shooting incident was captured on video that became public last week.

“There are a number of videos that have been released,” Laura Hogue said. “There are a number of photographs. There are a number of records. All of those will have to be assimilated, and importantly timelined, so that every single second, our hope is, will put together the truth of what happened on the 23rd.

“We know several other critically important facts, those facts that point to a very different narrative than the one that brings you all here today.”

Hogue said a preliminary hearing and bond hearing will be scheduled for Gregory McMichael “soon.”

Attorneys for Travis McMichael made similar comments on Thursday.

Arbery was jogging in the Satilla Shores neighborhood outside Brunswick when he was fatally shot on February 23, according to a Glynn County Police Department incident report.

The elder McMichael told police he thought Arbery looked like a suspect in a series of recent break-ins, according to the incident report.

Gregory McMichael grabbed a handgun while his son took a shotgun and they pursued Arbery in a truck, the father told police, according to the report.

When they caught up to him, Travis McMichael exited the truck with a shotgun and a struggle ensued between him and Arbery, according to the report and video of the incident. Gregory McMichael was in the bed of the truck when the shooting occurred, according to the report and video.

Arbery was shot three times, including twice in the chest, according to a Georgia Bureau of Investigation autopsy report obtained by CNN.

Gregory and Travis McMichael were arrested on May 7, two days after a 36-second video that appears to show the deadly confrontation surfaced online.

Arbery family lawyers comment on security video

Surveillance video from a house under construction appears to show Arbery at the site minutes before he was killed on February 23. In that video, a man can be seen walking around and not touching anything.

But at least one other video shot at the house has surfaced.

A man who identified himself as Travis McMichael called 911 on February 11 and told the operator he saw a man go into the house under construction, according to a police report. Surveillance video showing an African American man on the property on February 11 was recorded by motion-sensor security cameras installed by the property owner, Larry English, according to his attorney, Elizabeth Graddy.

English told CNN he could not identify the person he says he saw on the video after the February 11 incident. He did not report the incident to the police, he said.

On Friday, attorneys for the mother and father of Ahmaud Arbery, S. Lee Merritt, Benjamin Crump and L. Chris Stewart, issued a statement about the videos.

“We have reviewed a number of videos released by the attorney for the owner of the home under construction,” the statement said. “We are able to confirm that Ahmaud Arbery appeared in one video, however we are unable to confirm that he appeared in any other videos.”

The statement said there were people frequently on the construction site both day and night but Ahmaud Arbery “seems to be the only one who was presumed to be a criminal.”

“We appreciate the homeowner acknowledging that Mr. Arbery didn’t steal from or damage anything on the property. It is the homeowner’s opinion, after watching Mr. Arbery’s movements on the video, that he briefly stopped into the home under construction to get a drink of water from the working sinks,” according to the statement.