William Bryan Jr. lives just a few houses away from the McMichaels, close to where the killing took place. He has said he was only a ‘witness’ and not an accomplice in the shooting.
The killers evaded prosecution for more than two months, after the father and son team initially claimed they thought Arbery was a burglar after a spate of thefts in the area, and that he attacked them when they tried to make a citizen’s arrest.
But the shocking cellphone footage, recorded by Bryan, was leaked months later, showing the two men chasing and gunning down the victim in the street.
The lawyer for Arbery’s family has noted that the 25-year-old jogger was chased for four minutes by his killers before being gunned down.

The disturbing footage showed the men ‘ambushing’ Arbery as he tried to run past their pickup truck.
The leak of the video sparked outrage across the nation with liberral activists, high profile sports figures and entertainers  all leading cries for the McMichaels to be charged with killing Arbery.
Arbery’s mother, in an interview with Dr. Phil, hit out at Bryan.
Wanda Cooper Cooper said she wants ‘all hands’ involved ‘to be prosecuted to the highest’, telling Dr Phil she ‘strongly believes’ Bryan was involved.

Bryan’s attorney Kevin Gough has previously denied claims his client was armed at the time of the killing and insisted he is ‘not a vigilante’.
Bryan has claimed there had been a ‘number of crimes in the neighborhood in recent weeks. His account is disputed by police who said there were no burglaries reported in the two months leading up to the young man’s death.
Gough also said the shooting simply ‘start[ed] happening in front of him’ and Bryan had handed over the footage to police ‘immediately’ after the incident.
Gough  told Weekend TODAY his client had arrived at the scene after he saw Arbery running through the neighborhood, pursued by the McMichaels in their truck.
‘He was in his yard and this just starts happening in front of him,’ said Gough. ‘He gets in his car and is trying to document that.’

Responding to the burning question why Bryan followed and filmed the attack, Gough said his client was ‘was trying to get [Arbery’s] picture… because there had been a number of crimes in this neighborhood and he didn’t recognize him and a vehicle that he did recognize was following him.’
‘From day one Mr Bryan has fully cooperated with law enforcement officers investigating this matter,’ he said in the First Coast News footage.
Gough said Bryan handed the cellphone footage to police as soon as officers arrived on the scene.
Bryan ‘disclosed the existence of the videotape and invited a responding Glynn County police officer to sit with him in his truck where they watched the video together,’ Gough said.
‘Mr Bryan went home and came back out to the crime scene shortly after at the request of law enforcement to further assist them and then later Mr Bryan voluntarily went to the Glynn County Police Department where he answered all the questions they had for him without a lawyer during a lengthy interview.’

He said the ‘family man’ ‘does not understand’ why he is being investigated over the shooting.
‘Despite his cooperation and for reasons he does not understand Mr Bryan has learned the family and apparently their lawyers are demanding he be arrested,’ said Gough.
‘He is not and never has been a vigilante.’
The attorney who leaked the footage shot by Bryan to the press said he did it because he believed it would clear the McMichaels of any crime.
Attorney Alan Tucker told Inside Edition that he was a close friend of the two men charged with Arbery’s murder. ‘I really thought releasing the video would put the truth out to the public,’ Tucker stated.
‘If he [Arbery] had just froze and hadn’t done anything, then he wouldn’t have been shot.’

Gregory McMichael retired last year after more than two decades as an investigator for the local prosecutor’s office. Because of those ties, Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson recused herself from the case.
Two outside prosecutors assigned the case have also stepped aside.
The McMichaels weren’t charged or arrested until May 7, after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the shooting investigation from Glynn County police.
Soon after the GBI’s involvement was announced, a Brunswick attorney with access to the shooting video released it to a local radio station — and copies soon proliferated online.
As attorneys for the father and son have urged people not to rush to judgment in the case, the McMichaels remain jailed in Glynn County waiting for a preliminary court hearing and for a judge to decide whether to free them on bond pending trial..