‘He died because of skin color’: Father of Ahmaud Arbery speaks out about trial
Yahoo News Reporter Garin Flowers spoke with Ahmaud Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery, and civil rights attorney Ben Crump after the fourth day of the trial of three white men who are charged with killing the 25-year-old unarmed Black man. Marcus Arbery told Yahoo News that his son died “because of skin color.” Crump said if the roles of race were reversed in the case, “nobody would even question whether they would be convicted of murder.”
Video Transcript
MARCUS ARBERY: We wanna get justice. And that's what it's all about-- getting justice for him. And he ain't gonna rest in his grave till he get justice. And I ain't going to rest till we get justice, me and my family. So we're fighting for justice. So justice for Ahmaud.
- Justice for Ahmaud.
GARIN FLOWERS: Thank you both for your time. Marcus, I don't know if you remember me. I spoke to you last year, not long after everything happened. So it's good to see you, and I hope you're doing well. How has this past year been for you?
MARCUS ARBERY: It's still a struggle. You know how they just tried to traumatize my son, and lie, and stuff like that, and trying to make him like he the victim of a-- a crime that never was committed. So it's a struggle.
You see that going on, and you know, I just look at how they [INAUDIBLE], because he was [INAUDIBLE]. He died because of skin color. So that's really hard for me and his mom and our family.
GARIN FLOWERS: I'm sorry. And you know, let's talk about the jury. That's raised a lot of concerns. 11 white jurors were chose out of 12, one Black man. You know, what were your thoughts when you saw that happening?
MARCUS ARBERY: It's pretty rough, because I just think about 1955, Emmett Till.
GARIN FLOWERS: Mm-hmm.
MARCUS ARBERY: You know, it take you back like that. And I just say, Lord, have mercy. But the key to this case is like Attorney Crump say. The evidence is overwhelming against [INAUDIBLE].
And then we had a video, so that gave us a lot of hope there. So-- ooh, God, I'm just praying to God for justice.
GARIN FLOWERS: Have you seen something like this, with this type of jury situation, Ben? And is it possible to get a verdict, a fair verdict that you think is fair, with the makeup of the jury?
BENJAMIN CRUMP: Well, all things are possible, Garin. And when you think about this overwhelming video evidence, audio evidence-- you know, Attorney O'Neill and Attorney [? Meredith ?] [? Nance ?] were talking about this. You have the evidence not only what we see, but what they're saying.
His father, Gregory McMichael, says on the video a minute before they shoot and kill Ahmaud Arbery that "I'm going to blow your F-ing head off," quote. And then he does it. If the roles were reversed, and this was a Black father and son chasing an unarmed white man and shooting and killing him, nobody would even question whether they would be convicted of murder. This self-defense allegation would be meritless.
But because we have two justice systems in America, one for white America and one for Black America, we still have to ponder would they be brought to justice? And will Ahmaud's parents finally get the justice that they seek?
GARIN FLOWERS: Speaking on that, you know, they said that this was a citizen's arrest law, and self-defense. But now, it's coming out that they never saw him commit a crime. So how can they claim that when they didn't even know if a crime was committed?
BENJAMIN CRUMP: Yeah, and that's the whole issue. It is based on his skin color. That's what they are doing. They are looking at his skin color, and they are making presumptions.
When the police got on the scene, Garin Flowers, they presumed that Ahmaud Arbery was presumed guilty. And they presumed that the white men who killed him were presumed innocent. That is the problem here.
Even when the police got on the scene-- and I know it was heartbreaking to Marcus Arbery and Wanda Cooper, Ahmaud's parents-- when the police get on the scene, you see on the video, Ahmaud's legs are still moving. But they don't offer him any medical assistance. They go to the white man who kills him, asked him, are you all all right? Are you OK? Do you need anything?
Never ever offered any consideration to this young Black man who is literally on the ground, dying.
GARIN FLOWERS: You mentioned earlier that, you know, they're trying to talk about Ahmaud's character and all that. As his father, you could talk to it more than anyone. You know, what was he like?
MARCUS ARBERY: None of that what they say he was. He wasn't nowhere like that. As a father that been in his life all his life, mm-mm.
So that's why I know he wasn't taking nothing. He ain't had [? that ?] [? to ?] [? do. ?] He was the baby. He was smaller.
He ain't had to do them things. He could come to me for anything-- his mama, his sister. They gave him anything he always asked for.
This man's staying in a $100,000 house. What he got to take something for when he got it like that? So that's why I know it was a bunch of baloney. They just wanted a way to kill a Black man.
And I'mma tell you, that's why they trying to justify it. Race in this-- it's just the truth, there was race in this. And I find out the son, he was so racist he didn't even want to be around Black people.
You know, it's trickled in the family. So when you like that, you're going to try to find a way to kill a Black. So that's [? why ?] [? now, there's ?] race in this. That's why they killed my boy. I'm telling you the truth.
GARIN FLOWERS: What does justice look like in this case?
BENJAMIN CRUMP: That they will be held fully accountable for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. Come February, it will be 10 years since Trayvon Martin was killed. And there are eerie similarities between the killing of Trayvon Martin and the killing of Ahmaud Arbery.
In February, everybody's going to be asking, 10 years later after Trayvon Martin was killed, how far have we come in America? And I believe what happens here in the trial of the killers of Ahmaud Arbery is going to make a profound proclamation on how far we've come in America.
