Text reveals police told building site owner to call neighbor who shot dead Ahmaud Arbery 'day or night' if there was a crime as they encouraged the ex-cop to be a vigilante (7 Pics)

The former cop who is alleged to have shot Ahmaud Arbery dead was encouraged to be a vigilante by police months before the jogger was killed, shock text messages appear to show.

Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis McMichael, 34, have been charged with murder after unarmed jogger Arbery was shot dead in Brunswick, Georgia on February 23. 

New pictures seem to show a text exchange between an officer from Glynn County Police Department and Larry English, the owner of a construction site where the gunmen claim Arbery was trespassing at before his death, according to TMZ

In the message, 'Officer Rash' encourages English to contact ex-cop Gregory McMichael 'day or night' if motion-activated cameras show anyone on his property, rather than contacting the police.

The text message Larry English received from a police officer in December 2019 telling him to contact neighbor Gregory McMichael if he needed help

Gregory McMichael (left) and his son, Travis McMichael (right) are accused of killing unarmed jogger Ahmaud Arbery in February 

The McMichael men were caught on video chasing Arbery in a truck and then confronting him in the middle of the street before fatally shooting Arbery

The text sent on December 20, 2019 - two months before Arbery, 25, was killed in broad daylight - stated: 'Greg is retired Law Enforcement and also a Retired Investigator from the DA's office. He said please call him day or night when you get action on your camera.' 

English's attorney, Elizabeth Graddy, confirmed the text message was real and that she'd gotten hold of it a few days prior, along with some emails.  

The father and son duo were charged with murder last week - more than two months after the slaying, which was caught on camera.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation stepped in to take over the case following a series of blunders by local law enforcement. 

On February 23, the day of Arbery's killing, a witness called a non-emergency number stating that a man had gone into English's home, which is under construction. Less than 10 minutes later, Gregory McMichael called 911 to report a 'black male running down the street.' 

During the call, Gregory was heard saying 'Goddamnit, c'mon Travis,' referring to his son.

A surveillance video showed Arbery as he entered Larry English's construction site the day he was killed. The McMichaels men said they chased him because they though he was a burgler

Leaked video of the incident went viral and led to the arrests of Gregory and Travis McMichael

It's now been revealed the video was leaked to a radio station by Gregory McMichael himself

They then grabbed guns and got into their pickup truck to chase down the unarmed Arbery, who had been jogging on the road through their neighborhood in Brunswick, Georgia. 

Leaked video of the fatal incident - filmed from another car, by a friend of the McMichael men - showed them chasing down Arbery in their truck. 

Upon catching up to him, Travis exited the car. Gregory claims that they told Arbery that they wanted to talk to him, but that the jogger attacked Travis.

During the struggle, Travis fired his gun multiple times, killing Arbery. The autopsy later showed Arbery was hit by three shotgun blasts.  

The video quickly went viral after it was made public - just days before the McMichael men were arrested on May 7 and charged with murder and aggravated assault.  

Attorney Alan Tucker initially came forward and claimed to have leaked the video, supposedly because he though it would help clear his friends of the charges, because if he 'had just froze... he wouldn't have been shot.' 

But, on Friday, Tucker - who is not representing the McMichael men -told WSBTV that it was Gregory McMichael himself who leaked the video to a radio station. 

Tucker said that McMichael had come to him as a friend, not as a client, with the video and that he wanted help downloading it to send to a talk show host on a local radio station.  

'That young man did not deserve to be shot,' Tucker told the news station, referring to Arbery. 

'There was no reason in the world for Travis to pull a shotgun out of a damn truck. None,' Tucker added.    

The McMichael men's defense has been that they were making a citizen's arrest after suspecting Arbery of breaking into and robbing homes in their neighborhood.

GRAPHIC: Shocking moment black jogger is shot dead by white men

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They said Travis then exercised his stand your ground right by shooting the unarmed jogger, claiming Arbery reached for his gun. 

The incident has been described as a 'modern day lynching' by Rev. James Woodall, state president of the Georgia NAACP.

But Lindsay McMichael, 30 - Gregory's daughter and Travis' sister - has now come forward to say that she believes 'mistakes were made,' but that the Arbery being chased and killed 'wasn't a lynching.'

She told The Sun that she was at home, in her pajamas watching a movie with her mother, when the incident occurred and that she went outside immediately after to see her relatives.

She said she looked Travis in the eye shortly after Arbery was killed and decided: 'I will until the day that I die believe that he had no intention of malice like that.' 

'I've seen my brother in his happiest moments - I was there when his child was born and I've seen him in distress and I know that look... it wasn't like some glory thing, like "I stalked and then got the kill that I was hoping for",' she added.

'It was absolute f***king panic...I really do believe that things just escalated so fast.'

Lindsay also denied that her brother and father were racists, claiming that she hasn't dated someone white since she was 19 and that both men 'loved every person that I've ever dated like they were their own son or brother.'

Lindsay also said that her relatives weren't vigilantes.  

'They're not monsters. This wasn't a lynching. Do I think mistakes were made? Absolutely, but look back on your life how many mistakes have you made?' she said. 

'Do I think that decisions were rash and people were jumping ahead? Yes. But do I think anybody thought "Today I'm going to kill someone." Absolutely not,' she added. 

The McMichaels have been jailed since last Thursday. Neither had lawyers at their first court appearances. 

With courts largely closed because of the coronavirus, a grand jury cannot be called to hear the case until mid-June.