Ahmaud Arbery killing: New police footage shows suspect covered in blood, saying he 'just shot a man' to cop
Police have released new footage that shows one of the men who allegedly shot Ahmaud Arbery drenched in blood just moments after the jogger was shot and killed. 34-year-old Travis McMichael was seen in footage released by the Glynn County Police Department on December 16, with blood all over his arms shortly after he shot Arbery in Georgia on February 23. The 25-year-old Black man was chased by the younger McMichael and his father, Gregory McMichael, 60.
Police can be heard in the video saying that they knew Gregory, who is a former cop. "We've had break-ins. And my gun stolen. And we caught him the other day," Travis said of Arbery during the three-minute clip. "I saw him running, running by, and the neighbors pointed and everything."
When asked who he saw running by, Travis gestured towards the road where Arbery's body was lying in the street and said, "him." "I mean, I just shot a man. Last thing I've ever wanted to do in my life," Travis was heard saying, per TMZ. "I told him to 'stop, stop, stop' until he hit me," he told the officer as he paced back and forth frantically. "There was nothing else I could do. I want it [the investigation] done right. It just doesn't look good," McMichael added, before reiterating that Arbery struck him a few times in the face.
A female cop asked Travis McMichael towards the end of the video if his father had retired "about a year ago." "June," he responded, before asking her for some water. A Georgia judge denied the McMichaels' bail in November because he deemed them to be a "danger" to society after reviewing footage of Gregory McMichael speaking to authorities. The judge reportedly said there was "significant danger" to the community due to McMichaels' actions based on the footage.
The elder McMichael was reportedly heard in said footage repeatedly mentioning his police connections, which the prosecutors deemed an attempt to "obstruct justice." Gregory touted his experience with law enforcement while conversing with responding officers and told them his revolver is "Glynn County-issued." According to prosecutors, he said these things "in the hopes that this will impact what investigators were doing at the time."
Wanda Cooper-Jones, Arbery's mother, was devastated after viewing the clip for the first time at the hearing, per the report. That said, both the McMichaels were indicted by a grand jury in June and are facing nine felony charges including four counts of felony murder, one count of malice murder, two counts of aggravated assault, one count of false imprisonment, and one count of criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment, according to The Sun.
The father-son duo was arrested in May, two months after Arbery was shot and killed. Gregory had alleged in a police report that he thought Arbery fit the description of someone who had allegedly committed a series of burglaries in the neighborhood. Meanwhile, Arbery's family has maintained that he was only out for a jog and have described the shooting as a "hate crime" and a "lynching."