Ahmaud Arbery's cousin remembers him on 26th birthday
BRUNSWICK, Ga. - Friends, family, fitness enthusiasts— even first time runners—laced up their shoes and hit the pavement today, running 2.23 miles in honor of Ahmaud Arbery who was killed Feb. 23, doing what the family says he loved most.
"You’d be driving down the highway and you’d just see him running for miles and miles and miles and miles and not even get tired," Arbery's cousin, Kevin Smith told FOX5's Alex Whittler.
"He was so athletic," he said.
Smith says he’s deeply moved by the millions of people who showed up on what would have been Arbery’s 26th birthday.
"I have learned not all people are racist," he said.
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Ahmaud Arbery (Photo provided by family members)
From Waxahatchee to Detroit, runners social distanced themselves and donned masks.
Bobby Arnold hit the streets in Atlanta.
"Anything we can do... as groups as people who believe in equality we have to just keep moving forward," he said.
The crowd roared at the NAACP rally in Brunswick.
"It is the best feeling in the world to see everybody put an effort in keeping 'Maud’s' name alive," Smith said.
A rally and run were held in the Brunswick neighborhood where Ahmaud Arbery was killed on what would have been his 26th birthday on May 8, 2020. (FOX)
Arbery’s former coach taking to Twitter Friday, posting a video at the last spot he saw the young man alive.
"I will not get tired until we get justice," Coach Jason Vaughn said in that video.
"I want you to know this morning maud that you have a whole community behind you," he said with tears streaming down his face.
Millions of people pushed themselves Friday, doing the very thing Arbery’s family said he was, in his final moments on this earth.
"I was out there and I looked at the crowd. I saw a lot of black people. A lot of white people. Spanish people," Smith said.
"But when it boiled down to it, all I saw was humans and for the first time in my life I felt like as humans we finally came together as one," Smith said.
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