US: Vigil marks one year since Ahmaud Arbery death

Members of Ahmaud Arbery's family joined a memorial procession Tuesday evening in Brunswick, Georgia where he fell bleeding in the street from three close-range shotgun blasts. Other relatives planned a candlelight vigil at a church in Waynesboro, where Arbery is buried in his mother's hometown. Arbery was pursued by white men and shot to death while running through their neighborhood on Feb. 23, 2020.

As the three men await trial on murder charges, their lawyers still insist they committed no crimes. Arbery's mother has filed a civil lawsuit on the anniversary of his death that accuses three men charged with chasing and shooting him with violating his civil rights. Wanda Cooper-Jones filed suit seeking $1 million in U.S. District Court on Tuesday,

Immediately after the shooting, police interviewed the men who chased Arbery down, and let them walk free. The first prosecutor assigned to the case saw no reason to bring charges. Pleas for justice by Arbery's family went largely unheard as Georgia and the nation entered lockdown in the coronavirus pandemic.

Arbery had been dead for more than two months when a cellphone video of the shooting was leaked online May 5 and a national outcry erupted. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case the next day and swiftly arrested the shooter, Travis McMichael; his father, Greg McMichael; and neighbor Roddie Bryan on murder charges.

Outrage over Arbery's slaying still simmered when a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd on May 25, igniting protests across the U.S. denouncing racial injustice. At the Georgia state Capitol in Atlanta, Democratic lawmakers joined civil rights activists to mark the anniversary.

(Image Credit: AP)