The sister of Travis McMichael, the Georgia man alleged to have murdered Ahmaud Arbery alongside his father, has admitted to posting to Snapchat an unedited photograph of the young man’s dead body shortly after the tragic incident unfolded.
Speaking to The Sun, 30-year-old Lindsay McMichael said that she only posted the grisly photo as “a true-crime fan” and had no nefarious or malicious intent.
“I had no nefarious or malicious intent when I posted that picture,” she told the outlet. “The thing is I’m a huge fan of true crime — I listen to four or five podcasts a week — I’m constantly watching that sort of thing. It was more of a, ‘Holy s–t, I can’t believe this has happened.’ It was absolutely poor judgment.”
Attorney Lee Merritt, a lawyer for Ahmaud Arbery’s family, denounced the photo as “disturbing” while saying it fits in with a “pattern” of the McMichael family’s behavior.
“The picture Lindsay McMichael posted was very disturbing and very disturbing to the family,” said Merritt. “It also highlights that there are probably more video and more images of before, during and after Ahmaud’s murder – these images aren’t meant for public consumption in this way.”
“It actually fits in with the pattern of the McMichael family engaging in a weird, violent form of voyeurism,” he continued. “First you have [Gregory] McMichael sharing with a news station a video of the murder then you have his daughter sharing an image of Ahmaud’s bullet-ridden body on Snapchat. It’s deeply disturbing behavior.”
The report about Lindsay McMichael’s photo comes after it was revealed that Gregory McMichael himself released the original video of the killing believing it would exonerate him.
As to the charges of racism, Lindsay said that her brother “loved” her non-white boyfriends and that he did not act with malicious intent.
“I’ve seen my brother in his happiest moments — I was there when his child was born and I’ve seen him in distress and I know that look,” she said. “It wasn’t like some glory thing, like, ‘I stalked and then got the kill that I was hoping for.’”
Lindsay claims that she has since been inundated with rape and death threats over the killing of Ahmaud Arbery.
“We’re not the ones on trial here — my dad and my brother are and yes, I don’t think that they were beating the hood of the truck and saying, ‘Let’s go get this person,’” she said. “I think that things just really escalated. I just want people to realize we’re not monsters.”
Regarding Ahmaud Arbery and his family, Lindsay said that she feels deeply for “his poor mama” who she “thinks about every day.”
“His poor mama, I’m not a mother but I couldn’t imagine losing my child. I think about her every day and the grief and despair she must be feeling,” she said. “The words that I would love to say to his family would not even touch the amount of sorrow that I feel. I can’t say I’m sorry enough.”
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.