ATLANTA — A local organization is preparing for its annual run to honor Ahmaud Arbery, who was chased and killed by three white men while on a run in a Georgia neighborhood in 2020.
His death sparked a national outcry when video of the incident was leaked online of the brutal killing.
The South Fulton Running Partners will be putting the event on Friday, Feb. 23, starting at 6 p.m., where runners will join each other on the southwest BeltLine.
Movers and Pacers ATL, BMR ATL and the Ahmaud Arbery Foundation are also partnered with the organization for the run.
Runners will honor Arbery with a 2.23-mile run or walk at the West End Trail near Lee and White on Lee Street.
According to the organization, his mother and state representative -- who sponsored the bill to create "Ahmaud Arbery Day" -- will be in attendance at the run, where she will give reflections.
House Resolution 688 passed in 2022 and declared that "Feb. 23 will forever be known annually in the State of Georgia as The Ahmaud Arbery Day."
Organizers added that last year, they had over 100 runners participate in the memorial race. They anticipate more runners this year.
The event is separate from the "Run with Maud" memorial run, which usually happens in May, closer to his birthday.
More on the case
Arbery, 25, was chased by pickup trucks and fatally shot in the streets of a subdivision outside the port city of Brunswick on Feb. 23, 2020.
Father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael, and their neighbor, William “Roddie" Bryan, armed themselves with guns and pursued Arbery after he was spotted running past their home.
They all stood trial on hate crime charges in U.S. District Court less than three months after all three were convicted of murder in a Georgia state court. Federal prosecutors used social media posts, text messages and other evidence of past racist comments by all three men to argue they targeted Arbery because he was Black.
Both McMichaels received life prison sentences in the hate crimes case, while Bryan was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2022 after a jury convicted them of federal hate crimes.
In March, the McMichaels will have a chance to appeal their case on March 27 in Atlanta.