Woman Says Father, Brother Shooting of Ahmaud Arbery Not Racially Motivated

Paula Liu
By Paula Liu
May 18, 2020US News
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Woman Says Father, Brother Shooting of Ahmaud Arbery Not Racially Motivated
Gregory McMichael (L) and his son Travis McMichael on May 7, 2020. (Glynn County Detention Center via AP)

The woman whose brother and father allegedly shot and killed 25-year-old Ahmaud Aubery from Georgia back on Feb. 23 has spoken out about the shooting and admits there were mistakes that her brother and father made during the incident. But she denied that her family member’s actions were racially motivated, according to multiple reports.

Authorities in Georgia arrested Gregory McMichael and his 34-year-old son, Travis McMichaelon, on May 7 in connection with the shooting death of Aubery.

According to The Associated Press, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) announced the arrests the day after it began its own investigation at the request of an outside prosecutor. The agency said in a news release that the McMichaels had both been jailed on charges of murder and aggravated assault.

The GBI said the McMichaels “confronted Arbery with two firearms.”

“During the encounter, Travis McMichael shot and killed Arbery,” the statement said. No other details were immediately released.

Now, Lindsay McMichael, the 30-year-old sister and daughter of the two arrested suspects has spoken out on the shooting, denying that what happened back on Feb. 23 was a “modern-day lynching,” she told The Sun.

“They are not monsters,” Lindsay said told the news outlet, referring to her father and brother. “This wasn’t a lynching. Do I think mistakes were made? Absolutely, but look back on your life how many mistakes have you made?”

Lindsay also said that while she admitted that there were rash decisions made during the incident, she didn’t believe that her father and brother went out with a goal to kill somebody.

The Sun reported that Lindsay also denied that her brother and father were racist when asked, saying, “I have never dated anyone of the same race since I was 19 years old and my father and my brother have loved every person that I’ve ever dated like they were their own son or brother… these are people that I have brought home, that my sweet mama has cooked for and given everything to.”

Lindsay recalled to The Sun that she had been inside her home in her pyjamas watching a movie with her mother when the shots were fired, and she ran outside in order to find out what was going on. She also said that by the time she went outside, she was met with firefighters that she was familiar with, and so she directed her questions towards the firefighter in question and asked if her brother and father were ok.

“And I said, ‘They’re not dead?’ And he said, ‘No, they’re fine’. And I said, ‘Okay, that’s all I need to know’ because I had to go back over to the house where my three-year-old nephew—my brother’s child—and my mother were—and relay the message,” Lindsay said.

Lindsay told the news outlet that she had barely spoken to her brother whom authorities believed fired the shots that killed Ahmaud Aubery. All Lindsay requested to do was to bring her brother a new shirt because her brother’s shirt had someone else’s blood on it, the outlet reported.

“All I saw was the look on his [Travis’s] face and he was looking very desperate … I don’t think we even exchanged a word,” Lindsay said.

“I’ve seen my brother in his happiest moment—I was there when his child was born and I’ve seen him in distress and I know that look…it wasn’t like some glory thing, like ‘I stalked and then got the kill that I was hoping for,'” Lindsay told The Sun.

She told the news outlet that what she saw was pure panic, saying, “I really do believe that things just escalated so fast.”

According to the news outlet, she hadn’t even spoken to either of them regarding the incident.

She believes that it had been a misunderstanding, saying, “I don’t think it was vigilante justice.”

She said that her father and brother have a few things stolen from them and believed that her brother and father were only trying to catch the individual and make sure they didn’t escape before the authorities arrived.

Furthermore, Lindsay said that she and her family had been receiving lots of threatening messages, asking the public to please stop sending “hate” towards her and her family—especially her mother.

“My mother is the sweetest woman you’ll ever meet … she’s 61 years of age and she can’t protect herself. I’m five foot 2 and 120 pounds—how can we protect ourselves?” Lindsay said.

“I get that people are angry. But it’ll all come out, please, for the love of God and then we’ll figure things out after that. If things were done that were nefarious or wrong, fine, but let it come out first,” Lindsay.

Lindsay also apologized to Wanda Aubery, Ahmaud Aubery’s mother, saying, “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.

“I can’t say I’m sorry enough,” Lindsay said.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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