Thankful that now we can start healing,' Arbery's aunt Thea Brooks told the AP.Ĭooper-Jones is also thankful her son's killers are facing justice and his death will make Georgia a safer place.Īfter Arbery's death, Georgia became the 47th state to pass a hate crimes law.
Thankful for the fight we stayed in for justice. Thankful for the love that he's shown us, for the years we had him. Other relatives are also grateful for the blessing of justice. We're going to give our praises to God.' I've been sitting in that courtroom since October 18," Cooper-Jones said. 'œToday is actually going to be a day of rest. She isn't sure if they will make Arbery's favorite - pork chops and butter beans, but if not Thursday, the they will have them soon because she said her son loved them for Sunday dinner. So she plans a quiet Thanksgiving away from home today. She moved away from Brunswick after her son was killed. We share our experience and we grow together,' she said.Ĭooper-Jones spent the past six weeks away from home, since jury selection started Oct. Other mothers who have lost sons and daughters to racial violence or in police shootings also reached out. The officers were not charged in her death. Taylor was killed by Louisville, Kentucky, police who burst into her home without knocking while serving a warrant during a drug operation. She also spoke with the mother of Breonna Taylor.
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Cooper-Jones got a call from the mother of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teen killed by a man who successfully claimed self-defense during his murder trial after confronting Martin as he walked in his gated community. A federal civil rights investigation into Greene's death continues. Troopers said Greene suffered his injuries in a crash, but his doctors reported that didn't appear to be true. Sitting beside Cooper-Jones as she heard the judge read out guilty 23 times was the mother of Ronald Greene, a Louisiana man who died in 2019 after he was beaten and put in a chokehold by state troopers after a high speed chase. 'œI finally got a chance to come out of those courtroom doors and say, we did it, we did it together," Cooper-Jones said. The men face life in prison when they are sentenced later and a federal hate crimes trial for them is scheduled for February.Ĭooper-Jones said after the verdicts were read Wednesday, she thought of her son's supporters at the Glynn County courthouse every day who shouted 'œJustice for Ahmaud!' He had nothing in his hands and ran from the men for five minutes before one of them shot three times at him at close range with a shotgun. They cornered Arbery after finding out he had been seen on a surveillance camera at a nearby house under construction and wanted to question him about recent burglaries in the area.Īrbery ran through the neighborhood and other areas near his home to clear his head. The three white men who chased and killed Arbery in Brunswick in February 2020 were all convicted of murder Wednesday. This is the first Thanksgiving we are saying we got justice for Ahmaud,' Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday. 'œThis is the second Thanksgiving we've had without Ahmaud.