Attorney Says Ahmaud Arbery’s Family Wants Man Who Filmed Fatal Shooting Arrested

An attorney for the family of Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot and killed in Brunswick, Georgia, in February, says they want the man who recorded the incident arrested despite his attorney’s claim that he was not involved in the death.

“We are going to continue to push for the arrest of William Bryan for recording and participating in the ambush of Ahmaud Arbery,” S. Lee Merritt, one of the attorneys for Arbery’s family told CNN’s Don Lemon.

Bryan is the person who shot the video of the incident.

Merritt’s comments were in response to Kevin Gough, an attorney for Bryan, who said Monday that his client had taken a polygraph test that confirmed he was not involved in the shooting.

Gough said that the results of the test have been shared with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is conducting the investigation into Arbery’s death.

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On February 23, 2020, Bryan was working in his yard when he saw a person he did not know being chased by a car he recognized from the neighborhood, Gough said in an interview with CNN’s Martin Savidge last week.

Bryan began filming the incident, at one point getting in his vehicle and following Arbery, who was being chased, and Gregory and Travis McMichael, who were seen on the recording chasing Arbery in a red pick up truck.

The 36-second video was not released until about two months after the killing and would become a catalyst in the call for the arrest of the McMichaels, who have been charged with aggravated assault and murder.

Since Bryan’s identity has been made public, calls for his arrest have followed and protesters have been targeting Bryan and his family, Gough said.

Talking to reporters late Monday night, Gough said that Bryan and his fiancée are in hiding, in fear of their lives, unable to go home and sleep in their own beds.

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Gough says the polygraph test confirms that Bryan was unarmed at the time of shooting and that Bryan did not have any conversation with Gregory or Travis McMichael prior to the shooting. {snip}

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Despite the plea from Bryan’s attorney, Merritt, who is representing the Arbery family along with Benjamin Crump, told CNN Monday night that the family wants Bryan arrested.

“His family deserves justice from not only the two men who have been arrested, but from anyone who participated in that act,” Merritt told Lemon.

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