May 21, 2020 | 6:28pm | Updated May 22, 2020 | 9:17am
William “Roddie” Bryan (left) and Ahmaud Arbery
WSB-TV; Courtesy of Marcus Arbery/Handout via REUTERS
The Georgia man who filmed the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery has been arrested on murder charges, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Thursday.
William “Roddie” Bryan, 50, was charged with felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment in Arbery’s Feb. 23 shooting death by two white men.
Arbery, 25, who was black, was unarmed as he jogged through the Brunswick neighborhood when Bryan, who is also white, and the two other men, Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis McMichael, 34, chased him for more than four minutes before he was confronted by the McMichaels and shot dead.
Travis McMichael shot Arbery at close range with a shotgun. He and his father, a former Glynn County police officer, were not charged in the case for 74 days, until the GBI took over the case.
Bryan’s cellphone video of the shooting was made public this month and sparked national outrage.
He claimed he was a good Samaritan, but an expanded version of his video, released by S. Lee Merritt, Arbery’s family’s attorney, showed that he got into his vehicle and also chased Arbery, then filmed while he was shot dead.
Bryan is to be held at the Glynn County Jail.
