'Everyone should be safe when they run': The lasting trauma of Ahmed Arbery's shooting

And he looks up at the sky and gives a nod to his best friend, Ahmaud Arbery.

He finds it disconcerting that he is compelled to follow a checklist of precautions reserved only for Black runners to preserve his safety.

It also hurts because it was the tragic killing of Arbery — his friend since they were 6 years old — in Brunswick, Georgia, a year ago that sparked the safety measures, which he did not impose before last Feb.

"I used to run for health reasons," said Baker, a 2016 Morehouse College graduate.

"Ever since February 23, 2020, I think of my friend and pray that his life was not in vain," Baker said.

He said he was "flabbergasted" when he read a text message from Arbery's sister, who shared what she was told at the time — the false information that Arbery had broken into someone's home and was slain.

The image is lodged in the brains of Black runners who spoke to NBC News: Arbery, 25, stumbling before crashing to the ground after he was shot.

"His tragic death changed everything for Black runners," said Kevin O.

"But Ahmaud Arbery is something different, something horrific.

Backey, an avid runner who takes to the street even in the snow, took Arbery's killing as a cue to change her jogging patterns.

"We, as Black runners, have to worry about what we wear and where we go," said Backey, 55.

"We have to run smart, but at the same time we shouldn't have to give up our liberties to run because of our race," she said.

With that thought and Arbery's spirit in mind, the 2:23 Foundation was established last year to raise awareness of the shooting and to advocate "to help young men and women pursue paths to help avoid similar occurrences and instances of injustice." The group, which has more than 82,000 followers on Facebook, has scheduled a national 2.23-mile race in Arbery's memory on the anniversary of this death.

It's a part of being Black in America.

He created #TogetherWeStandNC, a group that generates discussions around race, with Arbery's killing as a conversation starter.

Terrell Holloway, a Black psychiatrist at Yale University, Arbery's killing will reverberate.

what happened to Ahmaud Arbery.

Baker said the trauma of Arbery's death prompted him to seek counseling.

Augustus Turner, 37, a major in the Army stationed in Madison, Alabama, wrote about the psychological trauma of Arbery's killing in a Facebook post that went viral.

It read, in part: "Sometimes, in the back of my head, I foolishly think to myself: I am just a black man who jogs.

"Why would somebody shoot me just because I am black and unfamiliar.

I become no different from Ahmaud Arbery.".

Backey, who cried watching the video of the shooting, said: "As a runner, I understand how Ahmaud would stop and look into a house that's being built

"Ahmaud and I ran together a lot," Baker said