'Under attack:' Jury in murder trial sees video of Ahmaud Arbery's last
minutes
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[November 06, 2021]
By Jonathan Allen and Rich McKay
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (Reuters) -When three white
men saw a Black man running through their mostly white neighborhood in
southern Georgia one afternoon last year, they "assumed the worst," a
prosecutor told the jury on Friday at the men's trial for the murder of
Ahmaud Arbery.
When they began chasing Arbery in their pickup trucks, they did so with
violent intent, according to the prosecution's opening statement: One
man tried to swipe Arbery off the road with his truck, another shouted
out a death threat.
Minutes later, Arbery would be shot dead by Travis McMichael, the
youngest of his pursuers through the streets of Satilla Shores, a quiet,
green cluster of houses outside the small coastal city of Brunswick.
Jurors looked on as a graphic video froze on a frame of Arbery's body in
the street, a gaping shotgun wound in his chest, an image left onscreen
as technicians tried to fix technical glitches that hindered the first
day of testimony.
Gregory McMichael, 65; his son Travis McMichael, 35; and neighbor
William "Roddie" Bryan, 52, have pleaded not guilty to charges of
murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment for their deadly
pursuit of Arbery on Feb. 23, 2020.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Nov/06/images/ads/current/safety-tip-daily-5.png)
Bryan's cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery spurred
outrage when it emerged more than two months after the encounter. It was
seen by many as another example of a Black person falling under
dangerous suspicion while engaged in some humdrum activity.
The men later said they thought Arbery might have been fleeing a crime
and were trying to detain him under the state's now-repealed citizen's
arrest statute in a neighborhood their lawyers say was "on edge" over
reports of thefts.
"It is a citizen's job to help the police, and the law authorizes that,"
Robert Rubin, Travis McMichael's lawyer, said in his opening statement
in the Glynn County Superior Court. "When seconds count, the police are
often minutes away. The police are not going to catch this guy at the
speed he's running."
Gregory McMichael was out in his driveway repairing seat cushions for
his boat when Arbery ran by. He and his son grabbed a handgun and a
12-gauge shotgun and jumped in the son's pickup truck in pursuit.
The defendants' own words undermine their defense, prosecutor Linda
Dunikoski said in her opening statement to the mostly white jury, which
has only one Black member.
"I assumed something was up," Travis McMichael later told police when
explaining why they chased Arbery, Dunikoski said.
Bryan saw the pursuit as it neared his home and jumped in his own truck.
Dunikoski called the truck a "5,000-pound lethal weapon" that Bryan
swerved toward Arbery four times to angle him off the road into a ditch.
"At this point in time, Mr. Arbery is under attack by all three of these
men," she told the jury. Bryan got so close that they found Arbery's
handprint and fibers from his white T-shirt on the truck.
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![](../images/110621pics/news_L59.jpg)
Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski speaks during opening statements in the
trial of William "Roddie" Bryan, Travis McMichael and Gregory
McMichael, charged with the February 2020 death of 25-year-old
Ahmaud Arbery, at the Gwynn County Superior Court, in Brunswick,
Georgia, U.S. November 5, 2021. REUTERS/Octavio Jones/Pool
![](../images/ads/current/centraldirect_lda_SPONSOR_2021.png)
"All three of these defendants did everything they
did based on assumptions," Dunikoski said. "They made decisions in
their driveways based on those assumptions that took a young man's
life, and that is why we are here."
Dunikoski said the defendants had deadly intent, pointing to
something the elder McMichael told police he shouted at Arbery:
"Stop or I'll blow your fucking head off!" She said he also told
police they had trapped Arbery "like a rat."
She said Arbery was simply a fitness buff and told the jury they
would soon be shown his sneakers, their tread worn smooth by his
avid jogging.
COVERED IN BLOOD
Rubin said in his opening statement that Travis McMichael had been
frightened that Arbery might have been armed. It would turn out the
jogger did not even have his cellphone on him.
McMichael opened fire in self-defense as Arbery tried to grab his
shotgun, Rubin said.
In the months before the shooting, reports of several property
crimes unnerved residents of Satilla Shores, Rubin said.
Arbery had been seen in security-camera video roaming around an
unoccupied half-built house near the McMichaels' on several
occasions in the months before shooting.
The property owner, Larry English, shared the videos with the
neighbors, and Travis McMichael was among those who saw them, Rubin
said.
The prosecution told the jury they would see a deposition by
English, who has said nothing was taken from his property on the
days Arbery was there, and that he believes Arbery was using a water
source on the site to quench his thirst.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Nov/06/images/ads/current/graue_21BLAZER_081621.png)
Police officer William Duggan, who was the second officer on the
scene, recalled seeing Travis McMichael covered in blood and asking
him if he was okay.
"It was a quick reply of basically, 'No, I'm not okay, I just effing
killed somebody,'" Duggan said.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in Brunswick and Rich McKay in Atlanta;
Editing by Ross Colvin, Jonathan Oatis and Aurora Ellis)
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