*The sister of Ahmaud Arbery’s killer admits she posted a picture of his body to Snapchat because she is “a true-crime fan.”
Lindsay McMichael, 30, posted a grisly image of Arbery lying on the street in Brunswick, Georgia, on Snapchat, but claims she meant no harm, the Sun reported Monday, via the New York Post.
“I had no nefarious or malicious intent when I posted that picture,” she told the outlet. “The thing is I’m a huge fan of true crime — I listen to four or five podcasts a week — I’m constantly watching that sort of thing.”
“It was more of a, ‘Holy s–t, I can’t believe this has happened,’” she added. “It was absolutely poor judgment.”
25-year-old Arbery “died of multiple shotgun wounds sustained during a struggle for the shotgun” with Travis McMichael.
This supports video showing the moment he was gunned down earlier this year by two suspected white supremacists while jogging near his hometown in Brunswick, Ga.
Ahmaud was unarmed when he was shot on February 23 by Travis, 34, and his father, Gregory, 64, a retired cop, who had seen Arbery jogging in the area and decided to arm themselves, chase him down in a pickup truck and kill him.
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Hundreds rallied in Georgia to demand two DAs be removed for their handling of #AhmaudArbery‘s killing. One told police no arrests were warranted. It took 74 days for suspects to be charged.
Organizers said: “If it wasn’t for the video, this would have been swept under the rug.” pic.twitter.com/2HaH4IYABL
— AJ+ (@ajplus) May 18, 2020
A lawyer for Arbery’s family said Lindsay posting a photo of his dead body online “fits the pattern” of her family’s thirst for violence.
Gregory claims he leaked the video of the killing thinking it would exonerate him and his son.
“First you have (Gregory) McMichael sharing with a news station a video of the murder, then you have his daughter sharing an image of Ahmaud’s bullet-ridden body on Snapchat,” attorney S. Lee Merritt told the Sun. “It’s deeply disturbing behavior.”
Adding, “The picture Lindsay McMichael posted was very disturbing and very disturbing to the family. It actually fits the pattern of the McMichael family engaging in a weird, violent form of voyeurism.”
One Twitter user noted, “Lynching tradition is to take souvenirs. If there weren’t so many witnesses, someone would have a coin purse made of the brother’s private parts.”
Police said the two men chased Arbery for more than 4 minutes after he was spotted visiting a construction site on the block. Arbery was shot twice with a shotgun at close range during the confrontation.
NEW VIDEO shows there were frequent visitors on the construction site where Ahmaud was seen leaving on the day he was killed both day & night. Ahmaud Arbery seems to be the only one who was presumed to be a criminal and ultimately the only one murdered based on that presumption. pic.twitter.com/8tTwKPsck0
— S. Lee Merritt, Esq. (@MeritLaw) May 15, 2020
More alleged “trespassers” entering the construction site where Ahmaud Arbery was last seen before his murder. These children were not implicated in any crimes due to their presence at this location.
No white person ever was. pic.twitter.com/ezLfDwXB39
— S. Lee Merritt, Esq. (@MeritLaw) May 15, 2020
Lindsay defended her brother and father, saying they never “meant to kill anybody” and always “loved” her non-white boyfriends, the reports states.
“I’ve seen my brother in his happiest moments — I was there when his child was born and I’ve seen him in distress and I know that look,” she told the Sun. “It wasn’t like some glory thing, like, ‘I stalked and then got the kill that I was hoping for.’”
She said the family has received death threats since the shooting.
“We’re not the ones on trial here — my dad and my brother are and yes, I don’t think that they were beating the hood of the truck and saying, ‘Let’s go get this person,’” Lindsay said. “I think that things just really escalated.”
“I just want people to realize we’re not monsters,” she added.
Even if the jury spent 5 minutes deliberating their fate, it would still be longer than Ahmaud Arbery got. https://t.co/35v0N2XLEk
— Rahul Kohli (@RahulKohli13) May 16, 2020
Arbery’s death has been ruled a homicide by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, according to a copy of the autopsy report obtained by PEOPLE.
Earlier this year, state officials seemed to pave the way for father and son to escape charges, claiming they had a right to defend themselves against the “aggressive” Black man…. but after the video was posted online showing what really went down, both Travis and Gregory were arrested and charged May 7 with murder and aggravated assault.
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