JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A St. Louis lawmaker is seeking to honor the memory of a Georgia man who was the victim of vigilante violence and prevent similar cases from occurring here by placing limits on Missouri’s citizen’s arrest laws.
The “Ahmaud Arbery Act,” named for the 25-year-old Black man whose case drew national attention in 2020 after he was chased down and killed by three white men, was heard in a Senate committee Monday afternoon.
Sponsored by Sen. Steve Roberts, D-St. Louis, the measure would repeal “a private person’s right to make an arrest as it existed under the common law of this state,” a legal protection that played a role in Arbery’s murder.
