Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers driven by ‘pent-up racial anger’, prosecutor says

Three white men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery on a residential street acted out of "pent-up racial anger" and should be convicted of hate crimes, a federal prosecutor told a jury on Monday.

Travis McMichael, the man who pulled the trigger and fatally shot Arbery, "was just looking for a reason" to hurt a Black person when he saw the 25-year-old jogging on his street, the prosecutor argued, citing a slew of racist comments and videos McMichael had posted online.

Christopher Perras, a special litigation counsel for the US justice department's civil rights division, was delivering closing arguments in the federal hate crimes trial over Arbery's death that began a week ago.

The jury of eight white people, three Black people and one Hispanic person was sent to begin deliberations Monday afternoon.

Travis McMichael, his father, Gregory McMichael, and a neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, were convicted of Arbery's murder last fall in a Georgia state court.

The US justice department has charged them separately in federal court with hate crimes, alleging that they violated Arbery's civil rights and targeted him because he was Black. They are also charged with attempted kidnapping, and the McMichaels face counts of using guns in the commission of a crime.

The hate crimes trial is about whether racism motivated the trio's pursuit and killing of Arbery. Legal experts have said that is tougher to prove than the crime of murder. The McMichaels and Bryan have all pleaded not guilty.