Travis McMichael testifies he misspoke to police after killing Ahmaud
Arbery
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[November 19, 2021]
By Jonathan Allen and Rich McKay
(Reuters) -Pressed by a prosecutor about
inconsistencies in his testimony, Travis McMichael said at his murder
trial on Thursday that he misspoke to police in the hours after fatally
shooting Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who ran by McMichael's home in
Georgia.
McMichael, one of three white men on trial for Arbery's death, had told
the jury a day earlier that Arbery was grabbing his shotgun at the end
of a five-minute chase, so he fired in self defense. On Thursday, he
conceded that he told police that day that he could not say for sure
whether Arbery actually grabbed it.
The defense teams rested their cases on Thursday, and jurors were told
to return on Monday morning for closing arguments.
McMichael said the accounts he gave of the shooting to police initially
were "choppy" because he was nervous and under stress. He at times
misspoke to police, he said, or "had it wrong" in his statements made
soon after the shooting on Feb. 23, 2020, in Satilla Shores in coastal
Georgia.
"I just killed a man," he said. "I had blood on me still. It was the
most traumatic event of my life."
Prosecutors and relatives say Arbery was an avid runner jogging in a
neighborhood a couple of miles from his home.
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Outside the Glynn County Superior Court building, hundreds of Black
pastors assembled from around the country to offer prayers for Arbery
and his family.
The rally was organized after Kevin Gough, a lawyer for co-defendant
William "Roddie" Bryan, unsuccessfully asked for a ban on Black pastors
coming into the courtroom after Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton and
other civil rights activists sat with Arbery's parents in the
courtroom's public gallery.
McMichael told jurors on Wednesday that while he and his father and
co-defendant, Gregory McMichael, were chasing Arbery in their pickup
truck, Arbery "turned and ran" when the younger McMichael told him the
police were on their way.
In cross-examination by prosecutor Linda Dunikoski on Thursday,
McMichael agreed that he did not explicitly mention such a moment in a
police interview the afternoon of the shooting, nor include it in a
written statement he made that day. He later conceded that his father
had not called the police while they were pursuing Arbery.
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![](../images/111921pics/news_J19.jpg)
Defendant Travis McMichael testifies under cross-examination by
prosecutor Linda Dunikoski during the trial of the killers of Ahmaud
Arbery at the Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick, Georgia, U.S.,
November 18, 2021. Sean Rayford/Pool via REUTERS
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"You're telling this jury you're all confused and you
can't get your facts straight when you're telling the police why you
shot and killed a man?" Dunikoski asked.
"I've never been through a situation like that," he said.
The younger McMichael said he tried to be calm when calling out to
Arbery during the chase and used polite language including "please."
Dunikoski contrasted this with the threatening language McMichael's
father used, according to his accounts to police.
Quoting from one of the police interviews, Dunikoski asked the
younger McMichael if he heard his father shout at Arbery: "'Stop or
I'll blow your fucking head off?'"
McMichael said he did not recall hearing that.
The two McMichaels presented a joint defense. Their neighbor Bryan,
who jumped in his own pickup truck and joined the chase after seeing
it go past his driveway, did not call any witnesses.
McMichael left the stand after more than six hours of testimony over
two days. His lawyers have argued that McMichael's neighborhood was
on edge over some recent thefts, and called some Satilla Shores
residents to testify who said they did not know the McMichaels but
had seen thefts discussed in a community Facebook group.
(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta and Jonathan Allen in New York;
Additional reporting by Octavio Jones in Brunswick; Editing by Steve
Orlofsky and Cynthia Osterman)
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