Ex-cop charged in Ahmaud Arbery killing was banned from making arrests after skipping use-of-force training: report
The retired police detective facing murder charges in the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery was stripped of his power to arrest people at least twice in his career for repeatedly skipping use-of-force training, his personnel records show.
Gregory McMichael, who’s being held in a Georgia detention center with his co-defendant son, ended up losing his law enforcement certification just four months before he retired last year, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post this week.
The white ex-cop and his son, Travis, were caught on video cornering an unarmed black jogger outside Brunswick on Feb. 23 and fatally shooting him during a struggle. The video and the slow-moving investigation caused a national uproar and accusations of racial profiling.
The suspects, who were charged just days after the video went viral last week, claim they were chasing a burglary suspect when Arbery attacked them.
McMichael’s law enforcement connections have raised questions about conflicts of interest and two prosecutors who previously handled the case are now under investigation. One of them is Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson, who recused herself four days after the shooting.
The 64-year-old former cop worked as an investigator in Johnson’s office for more than 20 years.
The newly surfaced personnel files suggest he was far from being a perfect employee. Johnson’s office was notified in 2014 that McMichael had skipped multiple mandatory training sessions in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010, the Post reported Thursday.
“This situation has been a great embarrassment to me and to Investigator McMichael,” she wrote in a letter to the standards and training council. “It has negatively impacted my office, and I have taken measures to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. Please accept my sincere apology.”
The documents show McMichael applied for a waiver for training hours missed between 2006 and 2009 because of health issues.
“Again I do not offer this information as an excuse, I knew full well that I was responsible for attending the proper amount of training but failed to do so,” he reportedly wrote in a waiver application. “The years 2006 through 2009 were a very difficult period in my life. I allowed the difficulty of the situation to cloud my judgment.”
McMichael was granted a waiver in 2014 and was allowed to continue working in Johnson’s office.
But the suspect apparently continued missing training and was eventually stripped of his badge and weapon in February 2019 and was re-classified as a non-sworn employee. He retired four months later.
His attorneys, Laura and Frank Hogue, cautioned against a “rush to judgment” in the high-profile murder case.
“So often the public accepts a narrative driven by an incomplete set of facts, one that vilifies a good person, based on a rush to judgment, which has happened in this case,” Laura Hogue said in a statement Thursday.
An attorney for 34-year-old Travis McMichael said he would hold a news conference Thursday afternoon to comment on the case.
Missing Use of Force Training is fairly common and that information really doesn't mean anything.
