JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — “We shared a very special bond.”
It's what Ahmaud Arbery’s mother Wanda Cooper-Jones told ABC's 20/20 as part of the "Nowhere to Run: The Ahmaud Arbery Story" that airs Friday night.
Arbery’s family and friends described him as a man who often smiled and lived to make others happy. His life was cut short Feb. 23, 2020 when he was murdered by three white men.
Cellphone video leaked to the public shows two men in a pickup truck approaching the 25-year-old as he runs down the road.
One of the men, later identified as Travis McMichael, shot Arbery, who was unarmed, with a 12-guage Remington shotgun multiple times. Arbery died at the scene.
Travis, his father Gregory, and their neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, who recorded the video, were all on trial together this week for charges related to his murder.
One day before Thanksgiving, three men discovered they are now facing life sentences after a jury convicted them of murder.
But just who was Ahmaud Arbery, and what led up to those fateful events that would ultimately end his life? "Nowhere to Run: The Ahmaud Arbery Story" | The powerful new 20/20 premises Friday at 9/8c on ABC. Stream next day on Hulu.