Neighbor says he’s ‘not proud’ of filming Ahmaud Arbery shooting
The Georgia man who filmed the shooting death of unarmed black jogger Ahmaud Arbery says he’s “not proud” he did so — but he hopes it “helps in the end.”
William “Roddie” Bryan, whose cellphone footage of the Feb. 23 incident sparked national outrage, told “Good Morning America” he has “tons of regrets” over the incident.
“Yeah, I wish I hadn’t been there,” Bryan told the ABC-TV show Tuesday. “But, once again, if I hadn’t have been there, there’d be no video.”
“If the video wasn’t there, I don’t think there would be an outcome that anybody would be satisfied with,” he said.
“I’m not proud that I shot the video, but maybe it helps in the end.”
Arbery, 25, was shot during an encounter with Travis McMichaels, 34, and his 64-year-old father, Gregory McMichaels, a former cop and retired investigator with the local district attorney’s office.
Both men told police they believed Arbery was a burglar and sought to detain him for police. But Travis McMichaels shot and killed Arbery with a shotgun during a struggle.
No charges were filed in the case until this month, when Bryan’s video was made public, sparking an outcry for justice that led to murder charges against the father and son.
The charges were filed by the Georgia Bureau of
of Investigation, a state agency, after local prosecutors recused themselves over their ties to the elder McMichael.
On Monday, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who asked federal prosecutors to investigate the circumstances of Arbery’s shooting death, appointed a new state prosecutor to the case.
Cobb County District Attorney Joyette Holmes is the third state prosecutor on the case, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Also Monday, the US Department of Justice said it would weigh federal hate crime charges in the case, which could carry the death penalty.
“There’s tons of regrets,” Bryan said on “GMA.” “Can I sit here and tell you what they all are? No. I regret that the family lost a loved one. That’s not just something that should’ve happened.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/05/12/man-says-hes-not-proud-of-filming-ahmaud-arbery-shooting/
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