Defendant Travis McMichael stands as the jury enters the room during his trial at the Glynn County Courthouse, in Brunswick, Georgia November 8, 2021. — Reuters pic
BRUNSWICK, Nov 10 — One of the men accused in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in a southern Georgia suburb in 2020 bloodied himself as he examined the Black jogger’s body, looking in vain for a weapon, a police officer told a court yesterday.
Gregory McMichael, 65, is one of three white men on trial in the case of Arbery, 25, whom they say they suspected may have been fleeing a crime when they pursued him in vehicles, cornered him and shot him on a street in their mostly white neighbourhood.
Here are some important moments from the third day of witness testimony in Glynn County Superior Court:
Jeff Brandeberry, Glynn County police officer
McMichael told police Arbery was moving fast through the neighbourhood, and “I’m talking about a dead run, he’s not jogging,” Jeff Brandeberry, a county police officer, told the court, reading from a transcript of a video recording from his body-worn camera.
McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, 35, and neighbour William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment for their deadly pursuit of Arbery on February 23, 2020. They face life in prison if convicted by a jury composed of 11 white people and one Black person.
Prosecutors have said the men “assumed the worst” of Arbery as he ran through the Satilla Shores neighbourhood just outside Brunswick, which had experienced some recent thefts from cars.
After Arbery was trapped by the three men, he was seen on video reaching out for Travis McMichael’s shotgun. Arbery was shot three times by Travis McMichael.
Brandeberry said he arrived on the scene shortly after the shooting and interviewed Greg McMichael, who had blood on his right hand.
The police officer testified that McMichael got the blood on himself because he moved Arbery’s arm as he lay prone on the ground after the shooting to check him for a weapon.
“I didn’t know if he (Arbery) had a weapon or not,” Gregory McMichael told the officer in explaining why he touched the body, according to the transcript read to the jury.
Arbery was unarmed.
McMichael said he shouted from the truck at Arbery to stop his running.
“Stop, stop, stop, goddamn it,” McMichael said, according to the transcript Brandeberry read.
The elder McMichael had been armed with a pistol he fetched after seeing Arbery run down the street.
“I don’t take any chances,” McMichael, an ex-policeman, told the officer, according to the transcript.
Parker Marcy, detective with the Glynn County police department
Gregory McMichael, who began the armed chase of Arbery, told Glynn County police detective Parker Marcy that he thought Arbery might have committed a crime, the detective told the jury.
McMichael told the detective he “wanted to hold Arbery for the police, so he could be arrested, or identified at the very least,” according to a transcript of Marcy’s interview at the county police headquarters.
Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski asked whether McMichael ever told the detective that he was trying to “detain” or “arrest” Arbery.
McMichael did not, Marcy replied.
The defendants have argued that they were trying to make a citizen’s arrest under a state law that Georgia has since repealed. — Reuters