A group of running enthusiasts, who were impacted by the widely circulated video of Ahmaud Arbery’s shooting death, are honoring the young man on what would have been his 26th birthday by asking people to run in his memory.

The Atlanta Track Club is requesting that individuals do a 2.23 mile run, walk or jog--which acknowledges the date earlier this year he was slain--in solidarity with him and all African Americans who they say take risks simply when they participate in the popular activity.

Arbery was on a jog Feb. 23 through a neighborhood in Brunswick, Georgia when father and son Greg and Travis McMichaels, who claimed they suspected he had been burglarizing homes, chased after him and in the confrontation the younger McMichael’s fired his gun, killing Arbery.
After 10 weeks without any arrests or charges, both men were taken into custody Thursday evening (May 7) and charged with murder and aggravated assault.

“It’s a tragedy that it took over 10 weeks for these men to be arrested,” said Lee Merritt, the attorney representing Arbery’s family, in an interview with Atlanta station WXIA. “Ahmaud’s birthday was always going to be hard for his family and was going to be very, very hard for [his mother, Wanda] Cooper, but this softens the blow just a bit.”