Father and son who killed Ahmaud Arbery had a confrontation with the unarmed jogger two weeks before he was shot, neighbor claims

The father and son who killed Ahmaud Arbery had a confrontation with the unarmed jogger two weeks before he was shot, according to one neighbor. 

Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis McMichael, 34, were charged with murder after a video of them pursuing Arbery in a pick up truck and then shooting him dead in a Brunswick, Georgia street on February 23 surfaced online last week. 

Now neighbor Diego Perez says the two men had already approached their victim on February 11, after spotting him at the same construction site Arbery is thought to have looked round on the day of his death. 

Perez told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 'Travis saw him in the yard and Travis stopped. He confronted (the man) halfway into the yard. He said (the man) reached for his waistband, and Travis got spooked and went down the road.'

Travis is said to have returned with his father, who was armed and who had called the local police.  

Perez said he witnessed the February 11 incident after the property owner, Larry English, who lived two hours away, asked him to keep an eye on the site. 

After a motion sensor camera had been set off, Perez headed to the construction area, where he saw the McMichaels and the man he believes to have been Arbery.    

Perez said nothing was taken from the home, adding: 'All we knew about him was that he was the guy who kept showing up on our cameras. No one knew who it was.' 

The next time he saw Arbery was the day he was shot dead, Perez says.  

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Ahmaud Arbery, pictured, was killed February 23; a white father and son told police they pursued him in their truck because they suspected him of being a burglar

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Gregory (left) and Travis McMichael (right) have both been charged with murder and aggravated assault over the February 23 shooting of Ahmaud Arbery

Appearing to confirm the earlier confrontation Gregory McMichael is said to have told officers he feared Arbery was armed because 'the other night they saw the same male and he stuck his down his pants which led them to believe he was armed'. 

Arbery's grieving parents Wanda Jones Cooper and Marcus Arbery Sr say their son had simply gone for a routine midday jog when he was subjected to a modern day 'lynching'. 

Wanda told TMZ that she hopes prosecutors seek the death penalty against the two men: 'Coming from a mother's point of view: my son died, and so they should die as well.'

The home under construction is described in recent listings as a vacant lot, 0.5 acres in size on the banks of the Little Satilla River: the perfect spot for the 'river front home of your dreams'. 

Current owner, Larry English Jr., bought it in June 2016 for $120,000 and has built the majority of the structure which has a sign posted outside, warning: 'Trespassers will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.'  

Two separate videos emerged over the weekend to confirm that Arbery had indeed entered the partially-built house, one captured by English's camera and a second taken from a neighboring property.

Arbery's family say the clips are actually proof that he didn't steal anything and was merely looking around, which they insist is not a crime.

'Ahmaud Arbery did not take any anything from the construction site. He did not cause any damage to the property,' their attorney, S. Lee Merritt, said. 

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Ahmaud Arbery inside the under-construction home on February 23, the day he was killed. He walked into the house then left empty handed and was later shot dead by Travis McMichael who had chased him with his father, Gregory, a former cop 

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Ahmaud had been out jogging when he came across the home. His family says the footage shows he was not a burglar and that he would have been guilty of trespassing at most

The Georgia resident who called cops to report Arbery 'milling about' inside the empty house told DailyMail.com his suspicions were justified – because the unarmed jogger was wearing 'baggy' clothes.

He decided to alert police via a non-emergency number because the unidentified 'intruder' had 'no business' trespassing on the unfurnished property for several minutes around 1pm on February 23.

Asked why he was so suspicious about Arbery, he told DailyMail.com: 'He wasn't out for a jog, put it like that. You don't go jogging wearing saggy pants, saggy shorts.'

The aspiring boxer - who would have turned 26 last Friday - was in fact wearing a white T-shirt and knee-length shorts, consistent with clothes that someone might wear to train or go for a run.

Moments after he left the empty property he was shot and killed by father and son 'vigilantes' Gregory and Travis McMichael, who claim they were attempting to detain a burglary suspect. 

It took nearly three months and three different prosecutors for the father and son to be charged with murder after state authorities were stung into action by a leaked video of the 'lynching'.

Georgia's Attorney General is now investigating the handling of the case amid claims that prosecutors passed it off to protect 64-year-old Gregory McMichael, a retired cop who worked for the local district attorney's office. 

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In a still from the video filmed by William 'Roddy' Bryan, Ahmaud Arbery stumbles and falls to the ground after being shot as Travis McMichael stands by holding a shotgun in a neighborhood outside Brunswick, Georgia, on February 23

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In the sickening footage of Arbery's death, a shot can be heard and Arbery is seen scuffling with Travis as Arbery appears to try to get the gun away from Travis. Two more shots can be heard and are fired at point-blank range before

When DailyMail.com reached out to English he stressed he was elsewhere on February 23 and played no part in the events leading up to Arbery's death. 

English says he was working three hours away when he received an alert on his cell phone saying something had triggered a remote security camera inside the property.

Assuming it was a dog or cat, he didn't look at his phone for about 15 minutes.

By the time he had checked the footage, seen an unidentified male and asked a friend in Satilla Drive what was going on, the shooting had already happened.

'The English family had no relationship with the McMichaels and did not even know what had occurred until after Mr Arbery's death was reported to them,' he said, though an attorney.

'Mr English would never have sought a vigilante response, much less one resulting in a tragic death.'