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What we know about Ahmaud Arbery

Ahmaud Arbery was running through a south Georgia neighborhood when his life was brutally cut short. His death sparked a nationwide outcry.

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Ahmaud Arbery's name will likely be in top headlines for the next few weeks as the suspects accused in his death stand trial.

Here's a little on his background, his death, and his legacy.

Where is Ahmaud Arbery from?

Ahmaud Marquez Arbery, a former high school football player, lived outside the city of Brunswick, Georgia with his mother. 

He graduated from Brunswick High School in 2012 and was studying to be an electrician at South Georgia Technical College. 

Arbery was running through a south Georgia neighborhood when his life was brutally cut short at age 25. His death sparked a nationwide outcry.

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RELATED: The suspects accused in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery will soon stand trial. Here's how we got here.

The killing of Ahmaud Arbery

On February 23, 2020, Arbery was jogging in a suburban Georgia neighborhood near Brunswick in Glynn County, when authorities said he was chased, shot and killed.

Arbery, a Black man, was pursued by three white men: Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael, and their neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan. 

On that day, Arbery was running through Satilla Shores neighborhood when the McMichaels began chasing him. Authorities said Bryan joined in the chase and began filming a video of the incident from his car. The video shows Travis got into a struggle with Arbery, as he tried to run around the McMichaels' stopped vehicle blocking the road, and shot him.  

Credit: Glynn County
Left to Right: Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, William Bryan

The McMichaels claimed they were attempting a citizen’s arrest, finding Arbery suspicious after there had been a string of thefts they’d reported in the area. Surveillance video from surrounding properties later showed Arbery wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary when the McMichaels began chasing him.  

All three of the men are facing murder charges for Arbery's death. Jury selection for the Ahmaud Arbery trial begins Monday, October 18. 

RELATED: The day Ahmaud Arbery was killed | A timeline of events

The legacy of Ahmaud Arbery

Arbery's death sparked mass protests across the nation adding fuel to the Black Lives Matter movement. His death brought people together in order to fight for racial injustice and hate crime laws in Georgia.

After Arbery's death, Georgia's House voted unanimously for a bill to overhaul the state's citizen's arrest law. Gov. Brian Kemp had previously said the state's repeal on citizen's arrest statutes were a "vague and outdated" relic of Civil War and had "terrible consequences." 

Prior to Arbery's death, Georgia was one of just four remaining states without a hate crimes law. Georgia's hate crime bill created harsher penalties for crimes motivated by race, color, religion, sex, gender and disability. 

"I’m happy that Ahmaud’s name will be a part of such a big change, but at the same time I have to snap back into reality that Ahmaud is gone," his mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said at the time of the law's passing. "But his name will live forever I think."

RELATED: Ahmaud Arbery one year later | The legacy he left, and where the murder cases now stand

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