BRUNSWICK, Ga. (CBS News) — Three men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery were found guilty in a federal hate crimes trial Tuesday. Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael, and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan were all convicted of felony murder and other charges in November.
On Tuesday, a jury made up of eight White people, three Black people and one Hispanic person convicted the three men of violating Arbery’s civil rights and targeting him because he was Black. They were also convicted of attempted kidnapping, and the McMichaels were found guilty of using a firearm during the commission of a crime.
Outside the courthouse, Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, thanked the jury for the convictions, which she said gave the family “a sense of a small victory, but we as a family will never get victory because Ahmaud is gone forever.”
Arbery was shot and killed in Brunswick, Georgia, in February 2020. Cellphone video of the incident showed the McMichaels chasing Arbery as he jogged through the neighborhood. The two men cornered the 25-year-old with their pickup truck before Travis McMichael shot Arbery with a shotgun. Bryan helped chase Arbery and recorded the shooting on his cellphone.
The incident sparked national outrage, as did the fact that the three suspects were not arrested until two months after Arbery’s death.