Ahmaud Arbery’s shooting death will be investigated as a hate crime, and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia is looking into the reason it took more than two months to arrest the suspects, the Arbery family’s attorneys say.
On Monday, S. Lee Merritt, Benjamin Crump and L. Chris Stewart, the attorneys representing Arbery’s family, announced that they have met with the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia Bobby Christine.
According to their statement, Christine is concerned about the length of time it took to arrest Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael and neighbor William Bryan.
The metro Atlanta prosecutor is the fourth DA to take the case after Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson and Waycross District Attorney George Barnhill recused themselves due to conflicts of interest.
The third DA, Atlantic Judicial Circuit District Attorney Tom Durden, who was handling the prosecution when the McMichaels were arrested, saw the case taken away from him and given to Holmes by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr.
