Crime & Safety
Ahmaud Arbery Slaying Trial: Greg McMichael's Story Unravels Early As Police Testify
Police testified on Day 3 of the trial that Greg McMichael didn't invoke citizens' arrest and changed his reason for chasing Ahmaud Arbery.
GEORGIA — Testimony given in the third day of the trial of three men accused of shooting and killing Ahmaud Arbery revealed holes in the stories they used to justify the death.
Witnesses testified Tuesday that none of the men on trial — Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. — invoked the so-called citizens’ arrest law as the reason for the confrontation. Claims that Arbery had burglarized homes in the Glynn County neighborhood where the shooting happened were quickly walked back to only descriptions of him entering a home under construction, according to reports.
Surveillance footage from the day of the shooting played for jurors showed Arbery jog up to the wooden framework of a home with no doors or windows and casually walk inside, emerging several minutes later to continue his run.
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Cobb County Assistant District Attorney Linda Dunikoski, who is leading the prosecution, showed another video the same day as a Georgia Power crewman parked his truck in front of the same construction site and used the portable toilet in front of the house.
“So, you see anyone could go up to that house,” Dunikoski said to the jury, after which Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley quickly sustained an objection from Bob Rubin, Travis McMichael’s attorney.
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The McMichaels and Bryan face murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and other charges for their respective parts in the incident that left Arbery dead on Feb. 23, 2020.
Also, the trio on trial was indicted on federal hate crime charges over accusations that they interfered with Arbery's rights, and on one count each of attempted kidnapping, according to federal court records.
The 25-year-old Arbery was out for a jog in the neighborhood when Bryan and the McMichaels chased him in two pickup trucks, cornered him, and shot him while Bryan videoed the attack with his cell phone.
See also: 1 Black Juror, 11 White Jurors Selected In Ahmaud Arbery Trial
They reported the incident to police, claiming they were within their rights because they were making a citizen’s arrest based upon a Civil War-era law that was re-written specifically because of this case. And Gregory McMichael, a former law enforcement officer, claimed that they shot Arbery in self-defense as he tried to wrestle a shotgun away from Travis McMichael.
“He attacked my son,” the older McMichael said in a transcript of police response to the shooting that was read in court by Glynn County Police Officer Jeff Bradberry, who took the stand Tuesday, according to CNN. “He came at him. He tried to get the damn shotgun away.”
Police didn't arrest them and no charges were brought until video of the shooting surfaced and Arbery's family and their supporters pressured the state to involve the Georgia Bureau of Investigations.
Dunikoski asked Bradberry, who was one of the first to arrive on-scene, whether Gregory McMichael invoked the civilian law in an effort to detain Arbery.
“Did he ever tell you while you were talking to him that he was attempting to make a citizen's arrest?” Dunikoski asked.
“No, ma'am,” Bradberry replied.
According to Politico Gregory McMichael told Bradberry there was video footage of Arbery “breaking in all these houses out here.”
“Well, he makes frequent trips to the neighborhood and gets caught on video cameras every third or fourth night breaking into places, and no one’s been able to catch him,” Bradberry said, reading the older McMichael’s words from the transcript of their conversation.
But the story changed when McMichael later met with Glynn County Police Detective Parker Marcy, as Dunikoski questioned the investigator on the stand Tuesday.
“There were two or three videos,” Marcy testified from the transcript of his meeting with Gregory McMichael that referred only to the under-construction home, “that showed this guy breaking into or being or wandering around into this house.”
McMichael said he saw Arbery “hauling ass” on the street after leaving the construction site, and told Marcy that he grabbed his .357 handgun because he thought suspected Arbery, with no proof, of stealing a weapon from Travis McMichael’s truck a week earlier.
When Marcy asked if the videos of Arbery inside the unbuilt home revealed him picking anything up, Gregory McMichael replied, “you know … not that I recall.
“I don’t think the guy has actually stolen anything out of there, or if he did it was early in the process. But he keeps going back over and over again to this damn house.”
Dunikoski showed Marcy footage of Arbery inside the home.
“Do you see him take anything or steal anything from this location?” Dunikoski asked.
“No ma’am,” the detective answered.
The trial continues on Wednesday from the Glynn County Superior Court in Brunswick.
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