Ahmaud Arbery: What Did US Trial Jury Hear About Shooting Of Black Jogger In White Neighbourhood?

Gregory McMichael, his son Travis and a neighbour, William Bryan, have pleaded not guilty to murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment. The trio claimed they were trying to carry out a citizen’s arrest on Ahmaud Arbery on 23 February 2020.

The jury in the trial of three men accused of shooting dead a black man as he jogged through the Satilla Shores neighbourhood in the US state of Georgia are set to begin their deliberations later on Tuesday, 23 November.

Gregory Michael, 65, his 35-year-old son Travis and William Bryan, 52, have claimed they believed Ahmaud, 25, had just carried out a burglary.

A video of the incident - which appeared to show Arbery jogging down the street and then being attacked by the men - was uploaded in May 2020 went viral and the case became a huge cause celebre among Black Lives Matter activists.

The Murder of Ahmaud Arbery: All you need to understand how ludicrous the defense is, is to imagine a Black person making a citizen’s arrest of a white person jogging thru their neighborhood & then cornering them with a car & shooting them because they didn’t want to talk.

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) November 22, 2021

BLM supporters used the hashtag #JoggingWhileBlack to suggest Arbery’s ‘crime’ had been to go jogging in a white neighbourhood.

But the trial heard evidence Arbery entered a partly-built house in Satilla Shores shortly before the shooting.

This combination of handout photos created on June 24, 2020 using booking photos released by the Glynn County Sheriff's Office in Georgia shows (from L) William Roderick Bryan, Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis McMichael.

© AFP 2023 / Glynn County Sheriff's Office / AFP

Lead prosecutor Linda Dunikoski said Arbery had at most committed the misdemeanour of trespassing and she asked the jury to consider: “Is he this giant burglar who just happened to never show up with a bag, or any means to steal anything, all right, or is he a looky-loo?”

Arbery, who lived in nearby Brunswick, was unarmed at the time he was killed but the defence has insisted he was up to no good and was not simply jogging.

Larry English, who owned the partially-built house, said nothing had been damaged or disturbed and he said he had never authorised the McMichaels to confront anyone.

The trial has highlighted racial tensions in southern states like Georgia and defence lawyer Laura Hogue exacerbated matters during her closing speech on Monday, 22 November.

Ms Hogue told the jury: “Turning Ahmaud Arbery into a victim after the choices that he made does not reflect the reality of what brought Ahmaud Arbery to Satilla Shores in his khaki shorts with no socks to cover his long, dirty toenails.”

Arbery’s mother walked out of the court in protest and later told CNN: “I thought it was very, very rude to talk about his long, dirty toenails and to totally neglect that my son had a huge hole in his chest when he was shot with that shotgun.”

She has described the killing as a “modern-day lynching.”

The video footage was at the centre of the trial but the jury was told a local resident had called the police after spotting Arbery in the partially-built house but by the time the police arrived he had been killed.

In this Feb. 23, 2020 image taken from Glynn, Ga., County Police body camera video, authorities, rear, stand over the covered body of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, who was shot and killed while while running in a neighborhood outside the port city of Brunswick, Ga.

© AP Photo / Glynn County Police

The McMichaels chased after Arbery in a pick-up truck while Bryan filmed the incident as he drove along behind them.

In the video Arbery is seen to run around the McMichaels’ pick-up truck and is then shot. He then grapples with Travis McMichael before two more shots ring out.

Travis, who claimed self-defence, said: “It was obvious that he was attacking me, that if he had gotten the shotgun from me, it was a life-or-death situation.”

The jury has heard Travis swore at and used a racial epithet towards Arbery, who was unemployed but had enrolled at a college and was planning to become an electrician - and used a racial epithet.

Prosecutor: Did Ahmaud Arbery reach into his pockets?

Travis McMichael: No.

Prosecutor: Did he yell?

TM: No.

Prosecutor: Threaten you?

TM: No.

Prosecutor: Brandish weapons?

TM: No.

Prosecutor: Gun?

TM: No.

Prosecutor: Knife?

TM: No.

Prosecutor: He just ran?

TM: Yes. pic.twitter.com/93Kb734XCJ

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) November 18, 2021

Travis was the only one of the three defendants to give evidence.

He insisted they were trying to carry out a citizen’s arrest but admitted he never spoke to Arbery and nor did the deceased say anything to him before he was shot.

Travis insisted he followed firearms training he had undergone with the US Coast Guard when he shot Arbery.

But lead prosecutor Linda Dunikoski, in her closing argument on Tuesday, said: “All three of these defendants made assumptions about what was going on that day and they made their decision to attack Ahmaud Arbery in their driveways, because he was a black man running down the street.”

She added: “They shot and killed him, not because he was a threat to them, but because he wouldn’t stop and talk to them. And they were going to make him, absolutely make him, stop.”

All three defendants are charged with malice murder and felony murder, alternative counts which carry different levels of punishment.

The defence has pointed out the defendants were only charged on 21 May - after the video emerged - and have sought to portray this as evidence the police considered the McMichaels and Bryan had acted unlawfully until they were forced, by political pressure, to bring charges.