Biden urges investigation into shooting of Ahmaud Arbery

Former Vice President Joe Biden called for a full investigation into the February killing of 25-year-old black jogger Ahmaud Arbery, comparing Arbery’s shooting by a father and son who pursued him in their truck to a lynching.

In an online roundtable discussion focused on African American issues, Biden said Thursday that Arbery was “shot down in cold blood,” and that his family is entitled to a “swift, full and transparent investigation.” A video of Arbery’s pursuit and shooting by Gregory and Travis McMichael in Brunswick, Ga., Biden said, was akin to seeing him “lynched before our very eyes.”

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has said it is investigating the killing, but no charges have been filed against either man. The Brunswick District Attorney’s office recused itself from the case due to Gregory McMichael’s long history of doing investigative work for them. After a second prosecutor’s office also recused, District Attorney Thomas Durden, who is based in Hinesville, about 70 miles from Brunswick, said he would present the case to a grand jury.

Biden broached the subject of Arbery’s killing as part of a broader discussion of racial inequality, saying it was indicative of a “pandemic of hate” and that action from the top was necessary to address these issues. Biden vowed to address such disparities as president, also citing inequalities in employment, health care outcomes and exposure to environmental hazards.

“Nobody gets hurt if you raise the bottom,” Biden said. “People are breaking their necks. … They deserve to be treated with dignity.

“I’m going to need you if we win,” the former vice president told the audience of about 50, most of them black.

Biden released a plan earlier this week to address racial inequalities, including expanding African Americans’ access to credit and capital and ending the funding gap between majority white and majority non-white school districts.