Runners preparing for 2nd annual Run with Maud in Atlanta
ATLANTA - Runners from across the world will pay tribute to a Georgia man who was murdered while jogging on Saturday as part of the second Run with Maud 5K.
The event raises money for the Ahmaud Arbery Foundation, which provides mental health resources for Black youth.
It's been more than four years since Arbery was chased down and shot while out a run through a subdivision in Glynn County, Georgia.
That day, Gregory McMichael, his son Travis and William "Roddie" Bryan armed themselves with guns and used a pickup truck to chase Arbery after he ran past their home on Feb. 23, 2020. Bryan, a neighbor, joined the pursuit in his truck and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery with a shotgun. The McMichaels told police they suspected Arbery was a burglar, but investigators determined he was unarmed and had committed no crimes.
In February 2020, a federal jury convicted the McMichaels and Bryan of violating Arbery’s civil rights, concluding they targeted him because of his race. All three were also found guilty of attempted kidnapping, and the McMichaels were convicted of using guns in the commission of a violent crime.
AHMAUD ARBERY SHOOTING COVERAGE
In the hate crimes trial, prosecutors fortified their case that Arbery’s killing was motivated by racism by showing the jury roughly two dozen text messages and social media posts in which Travis McMichael and Bryan used racist slurs and made disparaging comments about Black people.
Ahmaud Arbery
More than two years of criminal proceedings against Arbery’s killers concluded in August 2022 as U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood sentenced the McMichaels to life and Bryan to 35 years in prison after their February convictions on federal hate crime charges. All three were already headed to state prison after being found guilty of Arbery’s murder the year before.
To honor Arbery's memory, the Arbery Foundation has partnered with the Atlanta Track Club to host the 2024 Run with Maud 5K, which begins at 9 a.m. Saturday at Lee + White off the West End Trail on the Atlanta BeltLine.
Runners can also participate virtually.
"Back in 2021, I had lost Ahmaud, I had to find a way to turn the pain that I was going through into purpose. I said, 'Well. I'm going to start this foundation.' When Ahmaud was killed he was having some mental challenges and I think it's very important that we give services to black boys between the ages of 10 and 18 to give them services in mental health," Arbery's mother Wanda Cooper Jones told FOX 5 before the first run in 2023.