Greg McMichael, who provided gun cover for his son as he fought and eventually shot a young black jogger, may have known the victim long before their encounter in a subdivision just south of Brunswick, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.

In his letter of recusal to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, Waycross Judicial Circuit District Attorney Roger Barnhill wrote that his son, a prosecutor in the Brunswick DA’s office, and McMichael, then an investigator in that same office, “both helped with the previous prosecution of (Ahmaud) Arbery.”

McMichael, a former Glynn County cop, told Glynn police he recognized Arbery, 25, from surveillance video that captured a recent burglary in his mostly white neighborhood. He said he planned to make a citizen’s arrest.