May 22, 2020 | 4:54pm
The Georgia man who recorded the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery was arrested in part because he repeatedly tried to “confine and detain” the unarmed jogger with his vehicle in the minutes leading up to Arbery’s death, according to his arrest warrant.
The warrant for William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. alleges he “did attempt to confine and detain Ahmaud Arbery without legal authority … utilizing his vehicle on multiple occasions” in the 20 minutes before the fatal shotgun blasts, according to CNN.
Bryan, 50, acted “with the intention of confining and detaining Arbery,” the warrant states.
The Brunswick, Ga., man was arrested Thursday on charges of felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.
Bryan’s video helped incriminate his neighbors Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34 — the white father and son charged with the Feb. 23 shooting death of Arbery, 25, who was black.
The pair reportedly chased the unarmed Arbery for more than four minutes before Travis McMichael shot Arbery at close range with a shotgun following a tussle.
Only after the video surfaced and went viral two months later — prompting a national outcry — were the McMichaels arrested.
Ironically, it later surfaced that it had been Gregory McMichael, a former Glynn County police officer and prosecutorial investigator, who had first leaked the clip to the press — because he thought it would make him and his son look better.
The elder McMichael told police that he and his son suspected Arbery in a rash of break-ins in the neighborhood.
Bryan, who is also white, has always insisted he was just 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.
A person can be charged with felony murder in Georgia if he or she is alleged to have contributed to another’s death, even unintentionally, while committing another felony. The charge of attempted false imprisonment is that felony in this case, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vic Reynolds said Friday in a news conference, according to CNN.
