Ahmaud Arbery was “attacked” when three white men in pickup trucks chased the black jogger through a predominantly white neighborhood in South Georgia before killing him with a shotgun, a prosecutor told the jury during the men’s murder trial.
Important points:
- Three white men are on trial for the murder of the unarmed black jogger Ahmaud Arbery in February 2020
- The men deny the charges that they acted in self-defense
- Controversy erupted when an almost entirely white jury was selected for the process
Gregory McMichael, 65, his son Travis McMichael, 35, and his neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, have pleaded guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault and wrongful imprisonment for the February 23, 2020 shooting of Arbery.
They later said that they thought Mr Arbery might have escaped a crime and tried to detain him in a neighborhood that their lawyers said was “open-minded” about reports of theft, under the state’s now-repealed Civil Detention Act.
“It is a citizen’s job to help the police and the law allows it,” said Robert Rubin, a lawyer representing the younger McMichael, in his opening address.
“When seconds count, the police are often minutes away. The police won’t catch this guy at the speed he’s running.”
Greg McMichael, Travis McMichael and William Bryan are on trial for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.Reuters)
Pickup truck a “5,000-pound lethal weapon”
The defendants’ own words undermine their defense, said prosecutor Linda Dunikoski in her opening speech.
The men had “assumed the worst” when they saw a black man running down the street on a warm Sunday afternoon in Satilla Shores, a residential area near the small coastal town of Braunschweig.
The McMichaels grabbed a handgun and 12-gauge shotgun and jumped into the son’s pickup after Mr. Arbery ran past their driveway.
“I assumed something was wrong,” Travis McMichael later told police when explaining why he and his father were persecuting Mr. Arbery, Ms. Dunikoski told the jury, consisting of 11 whites and one black, in Glynn County Superior Court in Braunschweig.
Mr Bryan saw the chase as they neared his house and jumped into his own pickup truck.
Ms. Dunikoski called the truck a “5,000 pound lethal weapon” that Mr. Bryan drove four times at Mr. Arbery to steer him off the road into a ditch.
Ms. Dunikoski said the three men’s actions were based on assumption. (AP: Octavio Jones)
“Ladies and gentlemen, at this point in time, Mr Arbery is being attacked by all three men,” she said.
Mr Bryan got so close that they found Mr Arbery’s handprint and fibers from his white T-shirt on the truck, she told the jury.
“All three of these defendants did everything they did on the basis of assumptions,” Ms. Dunikoski said as she showed videos of Mr. Arbery’s final minutes, including cell phone videos of the shooting that was taped by Mr. Bryan.
“They made decisions in their driveways based on assumptions that cost a young man his life, and that is why we are here.”
Arbery’s father leaves the courtroom
Ms. Dunikoski said the defendants had fatal intentions and pointed to something the elder McMichael told the police that he had yelled at Mr. Arbery, “Stop it or I’ll blow your damn head off!”
She said he also told the police that they caught Mr. Arbery “like a rat”.
Mr Arbery’s death has often been invoked in protests against racial injustice. (AP: Damian Dovarganes)
Mr Arbery’s father left the courtroom before Mr Bryan’s cell phone video of the shooting was played, showing the younger McMichael aiming his shotgun at Mr Arbery, who runs towards it before the fatal shots are fired.
Mr. Arbery’s mother sobbed into the shoulder of a man in the stands of the courtroom.
Mr Rubin said in his opening speech that Travis McMichael was afraid that Mr Arbery might have been armed, although it would turn out that the jogger did not even have his cell phone with him.
The man opened fire in self-defense when Mr Arbery tried to grab his shotgun, Mr Rubin said, and was desperate and covered in Mr Arbery’s blood.
Controversy over almost exclusively white jury
In the months leading up to the shooting, Satilla Shores reported property crimes that unsettled residents of a once idyllic place to raise a family, Rubin told the jury.
Mr Arbery had been spotted on surveillance camera video several times in the months leading up to the shooting, roaming an unoccupied semi-built house near the McMichaels.
The McMichaels weren’t arrested until May when a video of the incident posted on social media sparked national outcry.AP: John Bazemore)
The property owner, Larry English, shared part of the video with the neighbors, and Travis McMichael was among those who saw the older videos, according to prosecutors and defense attorneys.
Prosecutors informed the jury that they would see a testimony from Mr English who said nothing was taken from his property on the days Mr Arbery was there and that he believed Mr Arbery was on a water source would use the site to quench his thirst.
On Wednesday, the last day of the jury selection, controversy arose when prosecutors objected to a final jury made up of eleven white and one black jurors.
They argued that defense attorneys removed eight potential jurors from the final panel for being black, which the US Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional.
Superior Court Justice Timothy Walmsley agreed that there appeared to be “willful discrimination” but said Georgia law limited his authority to intervene as defense attorneys cited non-racial grounds for excluding black members of the jury .
Reuters / AP
