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LeBron James, Coco Gauff, other athletes react to fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery

Video was released Tuesday showing the death of the 25-year-old black man

The shooting death of 25-year-old black man Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia happened more than two months ago, but as it tends to happen these days, the case has just now taken off on a national scale after a 40-second video of the alleged slaying was released on social media this week.

After the fatal shooting of Arbery, allegedly by two white men — one of whom is a former police officer and former investigator for the district attorney’s office in the county — Feb. 23 in Brunswick, Georgia, neither man was arrested or charged in the shooting. Two prosecutors recused themselves from the case due to previous relationships with one of the alleged shooters, with one of the prosecutors arguing that there was insufficient probable cause to arrest the men due to the state’s open-carry, stand-your-ground and citizen’s arrest laws.

On Tuesday, footage was uploaded to social media that purported to show the two men following Arbery down the road in a white pickup truck before cutting off his path. An altercation ensued, with Arbery wrestling with one of the alleged shooters for control of a shotgun. Multiple gunshots are then heard before Arbery stumbles away and collapses to the ground. After the release of the video, a third prosecutor referred the case to a grand jury.

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James and other athletes who heard about the shooting death of Arbery reacted to the news on social media.


Martenzie Johnson is a senior writer for Andscape. His favorite cinematic moment is when Django said, "Y'all want to see somethin?"