Ahmaud Arbery: Father-son duo chased and shot him down, used the n-word while standing over body, court hears
Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year-old jogger, was "chased, hunted down and executed" by a white father and son, prosecutors said during the suspects' first court appearance on Thursday, June 4. Arbery's alleged killers, Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, made their first court appearance through video-link in Georgia on charges of gunning down the jogger as he passed through Santilla Shores. The court also heard that Travis, after Arbery's death, called him a 'fu***ng n*****'.
The McMichaels shot Arbery dead on February 23 on a Brunswick street in broad daylight while he was jogging. The pair reportedly suspected him to be a burglar running around the neighborhood. Arbery was shot at least thrice and was reported dead on the scene. The killing was captured on video by their neighbor William 'Roddie' Bryan who was trailing Arbery in a car. After the video of the assault was released on social media, the incident sparked a widespread racial outcry in the country and has led many to question why the suspects were arrested only after the outrage. No arrests were made in the case for over two months.
Bryan was also due in court on charges of murder on Thursday, June 4. However, his defense lawyer said that the 50-year-old refused to appear via video-link. Prosecutors, in the preliminary court hearing, said that the McMichaels "executed" Arbery by hunting him down as he jogged on the street. Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Special Agent Richard Dial, during the hearing, testified saying that the McMichaels did not call 911 before they began chasing Arbery through the neighborhood in their truck.
"They catch up to him, they are giving commands to Ahmaud Arbery to stop. Bryan sees them trying to pursue Ahmaud Arbery... you see Ahmaud Arbery running away. He’s trying to escape," Dial said, adding that Bryan then got into his vehicle and used it to try to cut Arbery off and run him off the road, according to the Mirror. "Arbery goes around Bryan’s truck who makes several more attempts to try and block in Mr Arbery, to detain him."
The GBI agent added as they tried to chase Arbery, the jogger made multiple attempts to avoid the truck and that was when Travis McMichael began aiming a shot gun at him. "Travis McMichael is holding a firearm, his arm is raised in a pointed position. Mr Arbery sees Travis McMichael in front of him. He changes direction to go around the passenger side. He is going around the truck. Travis then moves from the driver side then positions himself around the driver’s side door towards the front of the truck."
"You see Mr Arbery running along the passenger side. Mr Arbery then comes up to the truck, decides to engage with Travis McMichael. As he turns and goes towards Travis McMichael you hear a shot then you hear Travis McMichael engaged in a confrontation with Arbery. You then hear a second shot and see blood and spray in the screen," Dial said. "They come back into view, Mr Arbery is striking Travis McMichael. Then you see a third shot occur. After the third shot you can see Mr Arbery get past Travis McMichael and continue running down Holmes, and then he falls."
The agent told the court that Travis admitted firing three shots at Arbery and said that the first one had hit the 25-year-old in the chest. "After the first shot, again, you see a struggle between Travis McMichael and Mr Arbery, During that struggle, Mr Arbery, while he was wearing a white shirt…you see the front of his shirt saturated with blood," the agent added.
Arbery's death has drawn national outrage combined with the recent demise of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody. Over the past few days, there have been rampant demonstrations across the country by Black Lives Matter activists, demanding an end to police brutality and initiation of racial sensitivity in the American society.