The Black Lives Matter movement has highlighted dozens of cases over the past few months of people of color being victimized and killed by police and others without provocation, including video of a white woman calling the police on a black man who asked her to leash her dog.

Ahmaud Arbery seems to be only one in a long line of black men killed for going about their lives. The fact that the prosecution seemed to give little credence to the case sparked questions about racial profiling.

Charges filed and indictments returned

Aggravated assault charges and murder charges were brought against the defendants by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations. However, it was initially determined that a grand jury hearing would have to wait until COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.

Holmes commented in a press briefing that the Arbery family was “ecstatic” that a grand jury was able to come together and return indictments despite the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions.

She noted that the grand jury met in a different room than is normally used for hearings in order to properly socially distance themselves. Holmes also reported that masks were worn by jury members and hand sanitizer was available.