UPDATE - White Gunman Used Racial Slur After Shooting African American In Georgia, Case Advances

UPDATE - White Gunman Used Racial Slur After Shooting African American in Georgia, Case Advances

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th June, 2020) One of the men involved in the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year old African American, used a racial slur as the victim lay on the ground dying, US state of Georgia police detective Richard Dial said in court testimony.

"[William] Bryan said that after the shooting took place before police arrival, while Mr. Arbery was on the ground, that he heard Travis McMichael make the statement: 'fucking nigger,'" Dial said on Thursday.

McMichael, 63, and his son Travis are charged with murdering Arbery, 25 who had been jogging through their neighborhood near the coastal town of Brunswick in southern Georgia on February 23. The killing was recorded on video by their associate William "Roddie" Bryan, Dial told the court.

Later in the day, Georgia Magistrate Court Judge Wallace Harrell found that there is enough evidence to advance the case to the next stage, CBS news reported.

The McMichaels chased Aubery on their pickup truck after he had explored a house construction site they were building without taking anything from it, Dial testified. McMichael admits firing his shotgun at the chest of the victim and shooting him three times, the detective added.

For two and a half months, police and legal authorities in Glynn County took no action against the McMichaels until after they posted their video of the killing online and it went viral, prompting a New York Times investigation of the case.

On May 7, Georgia authorities arrested the McMichaels and charged them with felony murder and on May 21, Bryan was also arrested and charged with felony murder. The McMichaels were not arrested until 74 days after their video of the killing went viral.