The sister of Ahmaud Arbery’s killer, Lindsay McMichael, has apologized after posting a photo of the victim’s body on Snapchat after he was shot, claiming she had “no nefarious or malicious intent” when she shared it.
In the photo that was obtained by The Sun, the body of a “blood-soaked” Arbery was seen lying on the ground and surrounded by officers with the area barricaded with a crime scene tape.
Lindsay, 30, who admitted to posting the photo, told the tabloid platform she did not do it out of malice, claiming she is a fan of “true crime.”
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“I had no nefarious or malicious intent when I posted that picture,” she said. “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***, I can’t believe this has happened.’”
“It was absolutely poor judgement.”
The lawyer for the Arbery family, Lee Merritt, however, begged to differ, calling it very disturbing and suggesting there could be more photos or videos of the incident circulating.
“The picture Lindsay McMichael posted was very disturbing and very disturbing to the family,” Merritt said. “It also highlights that there are probably more video and more images of before, during and after Ahmaud’s murder – these images aren’t meant for public consumption in this way.”
Merritt also highlighted a pattern of questionable behaviors within the McMichael family.
“It actually fits in with the pattern of the McMichael family engaging in a weird, violent form of voyeurism,” he said. “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. It’s deeply disturbing behavior.”
Arbery, 25, was fatally shot and killed on February 23 after he was confronted by Lindsay’s father and brother, Gregory and Travis McMichael, while he was jogging outside Brunswick in Georgia. The older McMichael, who is a retired cop, had told officers that they had chased Arbery in a truck after he thought Arbery looked like a suspect who had been connected to a number of burglaries in the Brunswick area.
When the father and son caught up with Arbery, the deceased struggled with Travis over the shotgun the younger McMichael was holding. Two shots were fired at Arbery during the scuffle before he fell down on the road, the police report said.
Arbery’s death garnered a lot of national attention after the video of the incident was leaked, with people calling on authorities to investigate the case. Gregory and Travis McMichael were subsequently arrested on May 7 on charges of murder and aggravated assault.
In an interview with CNN, Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper, said she was told by police in February that her son had been killed in a struggle over a gun with the son of the homeowner whose house Arbery had burglarized.
Georgia governor Brian Kemp has promised full support for the investigation because “Georgians deserve answers”.
Lindsay, who admitted to The Sun “mistakes were made” with how her father and brother handled the situation, however, came to their defense, claiming “they’re not monsters.”
“This wasn’t a lynching. Do I think mistakes were made? Absolutely, but look back on your life how many mistakes have you made?,” she said. “Do I think that decisions were rash and people were jumping ahead? Yes. But do I think anybody thought ‘Today I’m going to kill someone’. Absolutely not.”
She also claimed her father and brother aren’t racists as they haven’t had any issues with her dating non-white people.
“I have never dated anyone of the same race since I was 19 years old and my father and my brother have loved every person that I’ve ever dated like they were their own son or brother,” she said. “These are people that I have brought home, that my sweet mama has cooked for and given everything to.”
