Ahmaud Arbery was killed after gunman Travis McMichael and his former cop father Gregory McMichael got ‘mad’ because the black jogger wouldn’t stop and answer questions, their murder trial heard Tuesday
Ahmaud Arbery was killed after gunman Travis McMichael and his former cop father Gregory McMichael got ‘mad’ because the black jogger wouldn’t stop and answer questions, their murder trial heard Tuesday.
‘The state is not saying Greg and Travis McMichael ran out the house to go murder somebody right then and there,' Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski said during closing arguments to the jury.
‘They left the house to go investigate. Stop we want to talk to you. Where did you come from, what did you do, what’s going on? And then what happened? Mr. Arbery ignored them. He wouldn’t do what they were commanding him to do. He wasn’t obeying their orders. He ran away, and they chased him.'
McMichael, 35, his father, Gregory McMichael, 65, and neighbor William 'Roddie' Bryan Jr, 52, have all pleaded not guilty to one count of malice murder, four of felony murder, two of aggravated assault, one of false imprisonment and one of criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment. The men said they tried to make a citizen's arrest, which was allowed under Georgia law at the time of Arbery's shooting death on Feb. 23, 2020.
They chased Arbery, 25, through the mainly-white area of Satilla Shores, just outside the small coastal city of Brunswick, Georgia, on February 23 last year. The pursuit ended with Travis firing three times from his pump action shotgun, leaving Arbery dead in the roadway.
Dunikoski alleged the defendants wanting to question the black jogger demonstrates they had a lack of immediate knowledge that he committed any crimes, refuting the defense's claim the men were attempting a citizen's arrest.
The prosecution began closing arguments Monday, in which Dunikoski questioned the credibility of the defendants' assertions that Arbery became a threat when they tried to stop him as he ran through the mostly white Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick.
'They made their decision to attack Ahmaud Arbery in their driveways because he was a black man running down the street,' she said in earlier arguments. They killed him 'not because he's a threat to them, but because he wouldn't stop and talk to them.'
Attorney Laura Hogue, defense for the elder McMichael, said during her closing arguments Monday that the defendants had a duty to catch Arbery, whom she painted as a frightening burglar with 'long dirty toenails,' using a description from the autopsy report.
Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, sat in the courtroom Tuesday with her arms crossed, accompanied by family members, while the prosecution made it's rebuttal before the jury begins deliberations. She said last week: 'I'm confident we will get a guilty verdict.'
During closing arguments Tuesday, Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski (pictured in court Tuesday) alleged the defendants wanting to question the black jogger demonstrates they had a lack of immediate knowledge that he committed any crimes
Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, sat in the courtroom with her arms crossed, accompanied by family members, while the prosecution made it's rebuttal
Dunikoski in her summation highlighted inconsistencies in testimony and initial statements to police.
‘To Travis and Greg McMichael that was a big jump in the lake. Here they are, ex law enforcement, Coast Guard. He won’t talk to us, we have questions. Stop right there. And he ignores them. Basically telling them, I’m not doing it. And it starts escalating. They start getting mad.’
Dunikoski said the situation ‘escalated, escalated and escalated’.
She said: ‘Now they want to get him. Now they want to stop him. Because they are mad at him. He has totally ignored them and run away from them. And how
