Marcus Arbery, father of Ahmaud Arbery, made a victim impact statement ahead of the sentencing of three men convicted of murdering his son.
“You know anything that doesn’t go well with me at the moment? The man who killed my son is sitting next to his father in this court every day. I will never get a chance to sit next to my son. – Not at the dinner table, not at the holidays and not at the wedding,” he said in the courtroom on Friday.
He spoke about the trauma of experiencing the death of his 25-year-old son.
Arbery said, “I pray that no one in this courtroom has to do what we did – bury their child. There are no words for that, because no one knows so much pain.”
“When I close my eyes, I watch his execution over and over again in my mind. I’ll watch it for the rest of my life,” he said.
Speaking about Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael and William “Roddy” Bryan Jr., who were convicted, he said:
“Not only did they kill my son in broad daylight, but they killed him while he was doing what he loved more than anything: running. That’s when he felt the most alive, the most free.” And they took all that from him.”
He said that men should spend the rest of their lives behind bars thinking about his actions, “Because to me and my family, we had to live with his death for the rest of our lives. We will never see Ahmed again. So I me.” Looks like he should be behind bars for the rest of his life because they didn’t give him a chance.”
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