DETROIT (WXYZ) — Charmaine Williams and Audri Orr say they run several days a week, but this is a special day. Members of the running group We Run 313 and people around the country are running 2.23 miles in honor of Ahmaud Arbery. He would've turned 26 today if it hadn't been for an untimely, violent death.
"I have lots of black men that I run with. They go out on runs by themselves. So just the thought of something like that happening to one of us crushes me, and just because I don't know him doesn't mean that I'm not crushed and hurt from what happened to him," Orr said.
Arbery was gunned down while he was out on a run on February 23rd. Gregory and Travis McMichael, a father and son, attacked Arbery. The 2.23 miles represents the month and day they shot and killed him.
Charmaine Williams said, "I have two sons. So I could only imagine what Ahmaud Arbery's mother felt, what this entire family felt."
While this tragedy happened in Georgia, there's an outcry across the country. That's not only because of the senseless killing but because of a lack of justice.
The McMichaels hadn't been arrested and charged until late this week, just days after the video surfaced. According to authorities, the McMichaels claimed they thought Arbery was a burglary suspect and were doing a citizens arrest. Then they killed him.
There's a campaign online for justice for Ahmaud. Maria B. Stanfield, an ambassador for Black Girls Run, says she wants the men convicted.
"We have to stop being a target," she said.
"When those sought men sought to kill Ahmaud Arbery, they didn't know his name. They didn't know anything about him. All they did know was that he was an African-American man," she said.
"They saw his black skin as a weapon," Stanfield said.
"So my hope about this campaign is that that stops," she explained.
