Cobb District Attorney Joyette Holmes has accepted an appointment by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr to take over the prosecution of a father and son charged with the murder of a Brunswick man in February.
The shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man jogging in a neighborhood near Brunswick, has galvanized nationwide attention since video of the incident was made public.
In a release issued by the DA’s office Monday, Holmes said that “the call to serve will not be taken lightly.”
Last week the Georgia Bureau of Investigation charged Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis McMichael with aggravated assault and murder.
The GBI, headed by former Cobb DA Vic Reynolds, took over the investigation after the Glynn County prosecutor recused herself because Gregory McMichael worked as an investigator in that office.
“Our office will immediately gather all materials related to the investigation thus far and continue to seek additional information to move this case forward,” Holmes said in a statement issued by her office. “We appreciate the confidence that Attorney General Carr has in our office’s ability to bring to light the justice that this case deserves.”
The release said her office has been given investigative files by the GBI, as well as “all facts and circumstances” stemming from the Feb. 23 shooting. All of that information “will be reviewed and all appropriate charges under Georgia law will be presented to a Glynn County Grand Jury for indictment,” the Cobb DA’s office statement said.
According to the video of the incident, Arbery, 25, was jogging in a neighborhood in Satilla Shores, outside of Brunswick, when two white men confronted and blocked him on the street. The video—taken by another man, a neighbor of the McMichaels who was trailing Arbery in a vehicle—then shows Arbery being shot.
No charges were brought by local law enforcement and no arrests were made, even after the video surfaced in late April. The GBI was asked to get involved last week, and on Thursday the McMichaels were arrested.
A Glynn County commissioner is alleging that Glynn DA Jackie Johnson stopped police from arresting the McMichaels, but the prosecutor denies those claims.
Holmes, a former Cobb Chief Magistrate judge, was appointed Cobb District Attorney by Gov. Brian Kemp in July 2019, after Reynolds resigned to become GBI director.
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