Ahmaud Arbery, the Georgia jogger who was gunned down by a father and son with ties to local law enforcement, was the target of a police officer in 2017 who tried to taser him in a park after accusing him of smoking marijuana, a newly released video shows.
The newly released police bodycam footage shows officers in Glynn County, Georgia, trying to use a taser on Ahmaud Arbery while his hands were up and he was unarmed in 2017.
Three years before Arbery, 25, was shot dead by a white former cop and his son while jogging in February, he had a tense encounter with police officers in Glynn County, Georgia.
Attorneys for Arbery’s family said the video suggests that the 25-year-old was subjected to a pattern of harassment by Glynn County authorities.

In November 2017, Officer Micheal Kanago reportedly approached Arbery after he suspected him of using marijuana and questioned why he was sitting alone in his car.
Footage obtained by The Guardian shows Kanago questioning Arbery, who explained that he was relaxing inside his vehicle and rapping over instrumental beats.
Arbery adds that it’s his day off from working at Blue Beacon Truck Wash.
“You want to know why I’m f****** with you?” Kanago asks, before instructing Arbery to remove his hands from his pocket.
Kanago later claimed to have felt threatened by Arbery and later wrote that ‘veins were popping from [Arbery’s] chest, which made me feel that he was becoming enraged and may turn physically violent towards me.’
At the time, Kanago requested help from an additional officer.
“You’re bothering me for nothing,” Arbery says to Kanago in bodycam footage.

Arbery continues to question the officer, who soon admits that the area is well known for drug use and criminal activity.
‘Criminal activity? I’m in a f****** park. I work,’ Arbery says.
David Haney, the second officer at the scene, arrives minutes later and yells at Arbery to remove his hands from his pockets, which he did.
That’s when Haney tries to use a taser on Arbery. However the taser did not work.
‘I get one day off a week…I’m up early in the morning trying to chill,’ Arbery told the officers.
‘I’m just so aggravated because I work hard, six days a week.’
Arbery is eventually released by the officers, but barred from driving his car because his license is expired.

Lawyers with Arbery’s family described the incident as ‘a situation where Ahmaud was harassed by Glynn county police officers.’
They told The Guardian that there was ‘no justifiable reason’ for Arbery to be confronted with a taser.
Additionally, they suggested that the video is proof that Glynn County police have unfairly targeted Arbery in the past.
‘This appears to be just a glimpse into the kind of scrutiny Ahmaud Arbery faced not only by this police department, but ultimately regular citizens like the McMichaels and their posse, pretending to be police officers,’ a statement read.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that Arbery was placed on probation in 2013 for having a gun while at a high school basket ball game.
He was later charged with shoplifting and violating his probation in 2018. Arbery’s family lawyer’s said those charges are unrelated to his death.
In February, Arbery was killed by Travis McMichael, 34, and his 64-year-old father, Greg McMichael.

Gregory and Travis have been jailed on murder charges since May 7.
The elder McMichael, a former police officer, told police he suspected Arbery was responsible for recent break-ins in the neighborhood.
He also said Arbery attacked his son before he was shot.
Arbery’s mother has said she believes her son was merely out jogging.
Defense lawyers for Gregory McMichael said last Friday that they have examined evidence that ‘tells a very different story’ about Arbery and the two men charged with killing him. Attorney Laura Hogue told reporters: ‘There is more than one video of the incident.’
She did not give any specifics. A roughly 40-second cellphone video of the shooting was leaked online last week, a day before McMichael father and son were charged the felony murder and aggravated assault.
The video fueled a national outcry not just over the killing but also that more than two months passed before arrests were made.

Arbery’s mother has said she believes her son [left], was merely out jogging when the duo fatally shot him [right] on Feb. 23 

Attorney Franklin Hogue, hired to defend Gregory McMichael along with his law partner wife, said more details would be revealed at a preliminary court hearing that he plans to request soon.
‘The truth will reveal this is not just another act of violent racism,’ Franklin Hogue told a news conference outside the couple’s Macon office. ‘Greg McMichael did not commit murder. Greg McMichael is not a party to the crime of murder.

Attorneys for Arbery’s parents have said security camera video from the same home construction site Feb. 23 shows Arbery on the property right before the shooting. They also say the footage shows Arbery committing no crimes.
‘There were frequently people on the construction site both day and night,’ attorneys for Arbery’s parents said in a statement Friday. ‘Ahmaud Arbery seems to be the only one who was presumed to be a criminal and ultimately the only one murdered based on that assumption.’
Travis called 911 to report a possible trespasser on English’s property the night of Feb. 11, less than two weeks before Arbery was shot. He described a ‘black male, red shirt and white shorts.’
‘When I turned around and saw him and backed up, he reached into his pocket and ran into the house,’ Travis told the 911 operator.
‘So I don´t know if he´s armed or not. But he looked like, he was acting like he was.’
Arbery’s mother believes son’s killers should get death penalty.
The lawyer for Ahmaud Arbery’s family said the victim was chased for four minutes before being gunned down by a white father and son in February.
S. Lee Merritt said the initial video that was leaked by Brunswick attorney Alan Tucker and revealed Arbery’s last moments on February 23 is much longer.
Merritt confirmed to Fox News on Monday that the new video shows William Bryan, who recorded the shooting, Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis McMichael, 34, chasing Arbery for four minutes while he was jogging in the Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia.
No other information has been released regarding the extended video, but Arbery’s family is expected to release a statement today.

Arbery was killed February 23 after the father and son trailed him in their white pick-up truck after he jogged past their yard.
The elder McMichael told police he suspected Arbery was responsible for recent break-ins in the neighborhood.
But local police have said there have been no break-ins in the area for the last couple of months.
J. Elizabeth Graddy the attorney of the owner of the house under construction said she thinks Arbery was getting water. A man in similar clothes appeared in videos from the home at least twice, Graddy said.
The homeowner, Larry English, lives hours away and set up motion-activated security cameras that send him a text when they start filming.
English called the Glynn County Police after one notification on December 17.
No one was arrested, but a detective sent English a text message three days later giving him Gregory McMichael’s phone number and identifying him as a retired law enforcement officer, adding ‘he said please call him day or night when you get action on your camera,’ according to the December 20 text shared by Graddy.
English says they never read the text until Graddy’s firm started reviewing his phone days ago.
‘He never called Gregory McMichael. He never took him up on that offer,’ Graddy said.

The crowd then marched away from the courthouse, taking a knee in silence and blocking traffic for more than 60 seconds to symbolize the days it took for arrests in the The video fueled a national outcry not just over the killing but also that more than two months passed before arrests were made.
Hundreds of people came to the Glynn County courthouse demanding accountability on Saturday.
Arbery’s family ended the rally thanking the crowd for their support and saying ‘we are all running for [the] Ahmaud’ case
Then they chanted: ‘When black lives are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back.’
The McMichaels have been jailed on murder charges since May 7.