A MAN has been nabbed for allegedly using bogus Facebook pages to threaten people protesting the murder of unarmed jogger Ahmaud Arbery, say cops.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says that officials have charged Rashawn Smith, 20, with dissemination of information relating to "terroristic acts".

The GBI said that on Saturday May 9 at about 11.55pm, it was "made aware of a Facebook post that contained a threat to future protests related to Ahmaud Arbery."

Officials alleged that Smith had "created a Facebook user ID of an unwitting individual to post a hoax.

"This is an ongoing and active investigation."

Smith was taken into custody in Midway, Georgia, before being booked into the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office – which is investigating the alleged hoax threat alongside the FBI.

The arrest comes as Georgia’s attorney general asked federal prosecutors on Sunday to investigate local law enforcement’s response to the fatal shooting of unarmed Arbery.

Authorities allege the black man was slain by a white ex-police officer and his son as the victim jogged through a small town.

NEW VIDEO

The suspects were arrested more than two months after the shooting and days after video of the shocking killing was made public.

The case has sparked uproar in the southeastern Georgia community of Brunswick and among civil rights activists nationwide.

Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis, 34, were taken into custody on Thursday by the GBI and charged with aggravated assault and murder in the February 23 killing of Arbery, 25, in Brunswick, about 300 miles (480 km) southeast of Atlanta.

State Attorney General Chris Carr said in a statement he asked the US Justice Department to open a probe into how the case was handled by two local prosecutors – district attorneys for the Brunswick and Waycross judicial circuits – and the Glynn County Police Department.

Cops have also been reviewing "additional footage" taken before Arbery was shot dead, but lawyers say it "doesn't change the charges" against his alleged killers.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the GBI are looking into another video, which apparently captures the minutes before the 25-year-old's alleged murder on February 23.

The AJC obtained the footage from a home security camera system in the area – but a former prosecutor who reviewed it told the publication it wouldn't alter the charges against the McMichaels.

"We are using video to put the timeline together to fill in the blanks of what happened that afternoon,” Scott Dutton, GBI’s Deputy Director of investigations, said.

The video shows a figure – believed to be Arbery – walking around a construction site minutes before he was shot dead by two men in a pickup truck, believed to be the McMichaels.

In it, a man wearing a white t-shirt walks into the garage of a house under construction before strolling around the back of it. 

Source: Read Full Article