• Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis McMichael, 34, were arrested Thursday in connection with the shooting of death of Ahmaud Arbery.
  • The 25-year-old black man was out running in Brunswick, Georgia, when the pair of white men grabbed two firearms and chased him.
  • Arbery died of his gunshot wounds at the end of the altercation, police said, but weeks passed without any arrests.
  • “The probable cause was clear to our agents pretty quickly,” Vic Reynolds, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said at a news conference on Friday, following an outcry.
  • The pair has been charged with felony murder and aggravated assault.
  • Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation found enough probable cause to arrest two white men in the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, within 36 hours of being handed the case.

“The probable cause was clear to our agents pretty quickly,” the agency’s director Vic Reynolds said at a news conference on Friday.

Arbery was out running in the neighborhood around 1 p.m. on February 23 in the Satilla Shores neighborhood of Brunswick, Georgia, when he was pursued by Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34.

They were armed and Arbery was killed by the younger McMichael, according to GBI investigators.

The agency announced that the pair face charges of felony murder and aggravated assault. They were taken into custody around 7:45 p.m. Thursday and booked into the Glynn County Jail without any incident, Reynolds said.

"There's sufficient probable cause to charge the McMichaels with felony murder and aggravated assault," Reynolds said. "I can tell you that if we didn't believe it, we wouldn't have arrested them. If we believe it, then we're going to put the bracelets on them and that's exactly what we did yesterday evening."

The case is being investigated by District Attorney Tom Durden, a prosecutor in a neighboring county, who plans to present the case to a grand jury. In the two months since Arbery died, two district attorneys have recused themselves over potential conflicts of interest, Reuters reported.

The GBI has obtained more evidence than local police

Durden, who took over the case on April 13, said on Friday that there are "new developments" every day.

He contacted Reynolds on Tuesday night and asked him to look into the shooting. GBI agents "hit the ground running" first thing Wednesday, the director said, acknowledging that it would've been ideal if the agency had been roped in when the crime first occurred. Reynolds said the GBI can only get involved in a case if it is requested to do so.

Now, he said, "all that matters is what the facts tell us."

Ahmaud Arbery

Foto: Ahmaud Arbery. Source: I RUN WITH MAUD/Facebook

According to Reynolds, Glynn County police had gotten the investigation to a "good point." But GBI pursued additional leads, re-canvassed the neighborhood, and interviewed more people - some for the first time, he said.

Asked if other arrests are pending, Reynolds said that the investigation is "active" and "ongoing."

"If ... the facts take them to make another arrest in this case, then they will do that," he said of agents assigned to the Arbery case. "If the facts do not, then they won't."

A Glynn County police report mentioned that a man named William Bryan filmed the video of Arbery's killing, which has been circulated widely on social media. Reynolds called the footage a "very important piece of evidence."

The bureau is "investigating everyone in the case, including the person who filmed the video" as well as how it was leaked, he said.

'Every stone will be turned over'

The McMichaels told police that they spotted Arbery as he jogged by and mistook him to be a suspect in a series of breaks-ins. So they grabbed a shotgun and .357 Magnum and followed him.

However, the Brunswick News reported that only one burglary was reported in the area between January 1, 2020, and the day Arbery died. The sole item stolen was a gun from Travis McMichael's unlocked pickup truck.

Footage of the incident shows the pair trying to block Arbery in while he tries to avoid them. Finally, though, they catch up to Arbery, stop the truck, and get out to confront him. An altercation ensues, shots ring out, and Arbery falls to the ground. He was unarmed.

"You look on that video, and it's like it was a hunting party," Ben Crump, one of the attorneys representing Ahmaud's father, Marcus Arbery, Sr., told Insider.

ahmaud arbery black jogger shooting dead georgia mcmichaels

Foto: A cross with flowers and a letter "A" sits at the entrance to the Satilla Shores neighborhood where Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed on February 23, 2020. Source: Sean Rayford/Getty Images

The case has caused protests and uproar across the country, with politicians, athletes, and celebrities decrying Arbery's death and calling for justice.

Friday would've been Arbery's 26th birthday, and people around the United States are running 2.23 miles - which marks the day he died - to commemorate his life.

"When we believe if this was any other citizen, especially a citizen of color, they would have been arrested because you have an unarmed man in a jogging attack," Crump said. "He doesn't have any burglary outfit or burglary tools or anything like that. I mean, he's jogging and this guy kills them, and they just take his word for it."

For his part, Arbery's father, Marcus Arbery, Sr., has characterized the shooting as a "hate crime."

"My young son wasn't doing nothing - minding his own business, running and working out. And that's a crime?" he asked First Coast News.

Reynolds pointed out that Georgia doesn't have a hate crime statute.

But, he said, "Every stone will be turned over, I promise you."

This article has been updated.