‘I will run with Maud forever’: It’s been 5 years since Ahmaud Arbery’s murder

Some Sundays, Diane Jackson still imagines her nephew seated in the back pew of their old church.

She served as an usher at St. James Baptist in Brunswick, and Ahmaud Arbery, bright-eyed and grinning, often grabbed a spot near the door where his aunt was posted.

But Sundays aren’t the same since his death five years ago. Arbery, 25, was chased down by three white men in pickup trucks and shot to death Feb. 23, 2020, during an afternoon jog just outside Brunswick. No arrests were made for 74 days.

The case made international news but remains a family tragedy.

“This destroyed our family,” Jackson said of Arbery’s death. “It just tore us up.”

She goes to another church now, she said, because any time she steps foot in St. James she can’t shake the image of her nephew sitting in his regular pew, smiling.

“I miss him coming to church with me on Sundays and the cookouts we used to have,” his aunt said. “He just loved to do stuff that made the family happy.”

For Arbery’s mother, the past five years have been a relentless quest for justice.

“Life has changed tremendously,” Wanda Cooper Jones said in a phone interview this week.

The three men convicted of murder and federal hate crimes in her son’s killing are serving life sentences, and the case led to two major changes to state law.

Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law was largely repealed, and hate-crimes legislation imposing stiffer penalties for those convicted of committing crimes against people based on characteristics such as their race, sexual orientation or religion passed.

“Sunday makes five years since I started this journey,” Cooper Jones said. “Now that it’s over, I think I can begin to actually breathe,” she said.

Jackie Johnson, the former district attorney who was accused of hindering the police investigation into Arbery’s murder, was cleared earlier this month after a judge dismissed the charges against her. Arbery’s mother said she is disappointed the case never made it to a jury, but grateful Attorney General Chris Carr’s office brought the charges.

“Very rarely does a DA sit behind a defense table,” she said.

On the stand, Johnson testified she never hindered the investigation into Arbery’s killing or interfered in any way. Her attorney, Brian Steel, accused the AG’s office of “indicting an innocent woman.”

For many in coastal Glynn County, Arbery’s murder will forever remain a stain on their community. Across Brunswick, bumper stickers and yard signs reading “#IRunWithMaud” are still seen regularly. The social media hashtag became a rallying cry for those who called for justice in the aftermath of Arbery’s killing.

Credit: TNS

Without those community members leading marches and demonstrations, Arbery’s mother isn’t sure any arrests would have ever been made.

“People from around the world saw that happened and they rallied around this case to make sure that we got justice,” said Cooper Jones, who keeps the bumper sticker on both her vehicles.

“I will run with Maud forever,” she said.

Timeline: How the case unfolded

Feb. 23, 2020: Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, is chased down and killed while jogging through the Satilla Shores neighborhood just outside Brunswick. His mother is told by police that her son was involved in a burglary and shot to death during a confrontation with a homeowner. Glynn County police had the cellphone footage of Arbery’s killing but decided not to arrest any of the three men involved.

Feb. 24, 2020: The following day, neighboring District Attorney George E. Barnhill drives to Glynn County to meet with police and answer their questions. After watching the video of Arbery’s death, they decide no charges are warranted. Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson had contacted Barnhill the day before after learning the shooting involved Greg McMichael, who once worked as her chief investigator.

Feb. 27, 2020: Days later, Johnson sends a letter to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office formally recusing herself from the case. Jackie Johnson would later say she decided not to get involved because of her prior working relationship with Greg McMichael.

Credit: Terry Dickson/The Brunswick News

April 2, 2020: The Brunswick News publishes an article about the case featuring details from a Glynn County police report. It names the men involved and notes that Greg McMichael is a retired law enforcement officer. The report said Arbery was chased through the neighborhood by armed men and killed during a struggle over Travis McMichael’s shotgun.

April 3, 2020: Neighboring DA George E. Barnhill writes a letter to Glynn County police explaining why he thought Arbery’s killing was justified under Georgia’s old citizen’s arrest law. He notes in that letter that he plans to recuse himself from the case.

April 13, 2020: The AG’s office assigns the case to Atlantic Judicial Circuit DA Tom Durden. Durden would later recuse his office from the case, citing a lack of resources.

April 26, 2020: The New York Times published the article about the case, “Two Weapons, A Chase, a Killing and No Charges.”

May 5, 2020: The harrowing cellphone footage of Arbery’s killing is posted online. The GBI takes over the investigation.

May 7, 2020: The GBI arrests Travis McMichael, who killed Arbery, and his father, Greg McMichael, who instigated the chase.

May 8, 2020: Glynn County protesters rally at the courthouse on what would have been Arbery’s 26th birthday.

Credit: John Bazemore, AP

May 11, 2020: Arbery’s killing is assigned to the Cobb County District Attorney’s office.

May 12, 2020: Attorney General Chris Carr asks the GBI to investigate “possible prosecutorial misconduct” by Johnson and Barnhill’s offices.

May 21, 2020: The GBI arrests William “Roddie” Bryan. A neighbor of the McMichaels, Bryan joined in the chase and filmed Arbery’s killing on his cellphone.

June 24, 2020: The following month, the McMichaels and Bryan are indicted on murder and other charges.

April 28, 2021: The three men are later indicted on federal hate crimes charges.

Sept. 2, 2021: Former Glynn County DA Jackie Johnson is indicted by the attorney general’s office on charges of violating her oath of office and obstructing law enforcement in the aftermath of Arbery’s killing.

Oct. 18, 2021: Jury selection begins in the murder trial of Greg McMichael, Travis McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan.

Nov. 17, 2021: Travis McMichael testifies in his own defense. He tells the jury he feared for his life and shot Arbery during a struggle over the shotgun. He also said he “didn’t want to escalate the situation” as he and his father, both armed, chased Arbery down the street that afternoon in his pickup truck.

Nov. 24, 2021: A nearly all-white Glynn County jury convicts the McMichaels and Bryan of Arbery’s murder, along with other charges. All three were later sentenced to life in prison.

Feb. 22, 2022: Nearly two years after Arbery’s murder, a federal jury convicts Bryan and the McMichaels of hate crimes for targeting Arbery because of his race.

Jan. 21, 2025: More than three years after she was indicted on charges she hindered the police investigation into Arbery’s murder, former DA Jackie Johnson goes on trial in her old courthouse. The case is brought by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office.

Feb. 3, 2025: The judge presiding over Johnson’s case takes the rare step of dismissing her obstruction charge, ruling he had not heard “not one scintilla of evidence” to support the prosecution’s claim that Johnson instructed police not to arrest Travis McMichael. The following day, Jackie Johnson testified that she was never involved in the case and never spoke to any of the police officers involved.

Feb. 5, 2025: In a major blow to the AG’s office, Senior Judge John R. Turner tosses Johnson’s remaining felony charge. Her defense attorney, Brian Steel, successfully argued the violation of oath count was invalid because it was predicated on an oath she swore in 2010, when she was first appointed DA by then-Gov. Sonny Perdue. Johnson had won reelection twice since then, Steel argued, and she took a new oath of office ahead of each subsequent term.