Jury selection to start in trial over Ahmaud Arbery’s death

Thea Brooks stands in front of a mural of her slain nephew, Ahmaud Arbery, in Brunswick Ga., Oct. 5, 2021. Brooks, who calls the killing a “modern-day lynching,” will join other family members as trial proceedings begin for three white men charged with murder in the February 2020 slaying of the 25-year-old Black man. Jury selection in the case is scheduled to begin Monday, Oct. 18. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)

Hundreds of people were ordered to report for jury duty Monday in Georgia for what could be a long, laborious effort to find jurors to hear the trial of three white men charged with fatally shooting Ahmaud Arbery as he was running in their neighborhood.

The slaying of the 25-year-old Black man sparked a national outcry fueled by graphic video of the shooting. Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan are charged with murder and other crimes in Arbery’s death  on Feb. 23, 2020, just outside the port city of Brunswick.

Jury selection could last two weeks or more. Arbery’s father said he’s praying for an impartial panel and a fair trial, saying Black crime victims too often have been denied justice.