The two men charged with fatally shooting Ahmaud Arbery told police they thought he was a suspect in several burglaries that had occurred in the area.
The only problem? There were no reported break-ins to cops in the weeks prior to the shooting, reported CNN.
Glynn County Police Lt. Cheri Bashlor told the outlet that no burglaries had been reported in the weeks before Arbery’s shooting, and that the last similar crime reported in the neighborhood was an automobile burglary reported on January 1. The report stated a 9 mm pistol was stolen from an unlocked truck outside of the home of the two men charged with killing Arbery: Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis McMichael, 34.
Another homeowner in the area told CNN his surveillance system caught a man who looked like Arbery “coming onto his property” on the day Arbery was shot, but declined to share the surveillance footage with the outlet. He also said there were other videos showing a man stealing fishing tackle after entering the property – but he couldn’t identify the suspect and never filed a police report.
These could be the break-ins the McMichaels’ were referring to when interviewed by police, which still wouldn’t justify deadly force.
As The Daily Wire’s Eric Quintanar reported, a 911 call from the day of Arbery’s shooting – identified by Georgia Public Broadcasting as being made by Travis McMichael – showed the suspect accusing Arbery of being in a house that was under construction:
CALLER: There’s been break-ins out here. There’s a guy in a house right now. There’s a house under construction.
DISPATCHER: Do you have your address or the other — that house’s address?
CALLER: Uh, right at [omitted].
DISPATCHER: And you say someone’s breaking into it right now?
CALLER: No, it’s all open. It’s under construction and he’s running right now. There he goes right now.
DISPATCHER: OK. What is he doing?
CALLER: He’s running down the street.
[Inaudible]
DISPATCHER: Okay that’s fine I’ll get them out there. I just need to know what he was doing wrong. Was he just on the premises and not supposed to be?
CALLER: [Inaudible] and he’s been caught on the camera a bunch before at night. It’s kind of an ongoing thing out here.
Lee Merritt, an attorney for Arbery’s family, told NBC that Arbery, who was said to be jogging on the day he was killed, may have run through the frame of the house, which isn’t a crime and wouldn’t justify his shooting.
“That dwelling did not have doors or windows,” Merritt said. “Under the law in the state of Georgia, in order to commit a crime by entering someone’s dwelling, you have to break a seal, break a door, forcibly enter something that is otherwise locked.”
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