‘Deeply disturbing’: Sister of alleged killer of Ahmaud Arbery shared Snapchat of black jogger’s dead body
Lindsay McMichael admitted her picture ‘was poor judgement’, as more video emerges showing police ‘harassment’
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The sister of Travis McMichael, who is alleged to have murdered Ahmaud Arbery, has admitted that she posted a disturbing image of the 25-year-old’s dead body on Snapchat because she is a “true crime fan”.
Lindsay McMichael, the sister and daughter of suspects Travis and Gregory McMichael, added that her post was not “malicious”, in comments made to The Sun.
“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,” said the 30-year-old. “It was more of a, ‘Holy s**t, I can’t believe this has happened”.
She added: “It was absolutely poor judgement.”
The admission comes as images, said to be those Ms McMichael posted on Snapchat the day Mr Arbery was shot dead, circulated amongst locals in Brunswick, Georgia.
The image showed the young black man’s body on the ground, soaked in blood.
Lee Merrit, an attorney representing the Arbery family, commented that both the McMichaels’ actions and the Snapchat post were “disturbing”.
“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,” said Mr Merrit. “It’s deeply disturbing behavior.”
“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,” the attorney added.
Video showing police attempting to taser Mr Arbery in 2017 was published on Monday after The Guardian obtained the recording via public records request.
His family’s lawyers told the paper that Glynn County police had “harassed” the young black man, and that “this appears to be just a glimpse into the kind of scrutiny Ahmaud Arbery faced not only by this police department, but ultimately regular citizens like the McMichaels and their posse, pretending to be police officers.”
That comes as an attorney representing the 64 and 34-year old suspects, who were arrested on 7 May, said that additional video of the February 23 shooting could exonerate the father and son.
“There are a number of photographs, there are a number of records,” attorneys Franklin and Laura Hogue said last Friday.
“All of those will have to be assimilated, and importantly, time-lined, so that every single second, our hope is, will put together the truth of what happened on the 23rd [of February].”
Ms McMichael told The Sun last week that she did not believe her brother and father had murdered Mr Arbery, and said: “I will until the day that I die believe that he had no intention of malice like that.”
Video showing the young black man’s murder caused widespread outrage when it was posted online earlier this month.
The McMichaels’ were then arrested almost two months after the shooting, whilst many criticised Glynn County police inaction.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments