The Georgia ex-cop charged in Ahmaud Arbery’s shooting death lost his police certification for failing to complete mandatory use-of-force and firearms training, according to a new report.
Gregory McMichael, 64, a former Glynn County cop and investigator in the Brunswick district attorney’s office, was suspended one year before Arbery was gunned down on Feb. 23 — and also fell short of completing required police training in five of six years between 2005 and 2010, the Washington Post reported Thursday.
McMichael, who retired in June, was suspended last year for “failure to maintain training for the year 2018” — his second suspension while serving as an investigator in the local prosecutor’s office. The first, in January 2006, was for an undisclosed infraction, the outlet said.
McMichael and his 34-year-old son, Travis McMichael, who are white, are being held on murder charges in the black jogger’s death.
Arbery, 25, was unarmed as he jogged through the Brunswick neighborhood, where the McMichaels blocked his path with their pickup truck. Travis McMichael got out of the truck with a shotgun and confronted Arbery, who was killed by two point-blank shots during a struggle.
No charges were filed in the case until last week, when a cellphone video of the fatal encounter surfaced and sparked national outrage.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr this week called for an investigation into local prosecutors who allegedly attempted to bury the case — including Gregory McMichael’s former boss, Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson.
“This situation has been a great embarrassment to me and to investigator McMichael,” Johnson wrote to the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council in 2004 over his failure to maintain required training, the Washington Post reported.
But two Glynn County commissioners said Johnson instructed cops not to arrest the McMichaels after the shooting.