On February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery was in the Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia when Gregory and Travis McMichael pulled their truck up to a jogging Arbery. The men confronted him about recent trespassing and burglary incidents in the neighborhood, and shot and killed him in the street.
A third man, William “Roddie” Bryan, trailed the men in his vehicle and recorded the shooting of Arbery. The video spread across the Internet in May, leading to an investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation--not only into the shooting, but into how prosecutors Tom Durden and Jackie Johnson in southeast Georgia handled the case.
Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan were convicted of Arbery’s murder during the state trial in November. Each man received a life sentence.
The three men are now facing a separate federal trial onset to determine whether or not Arbery died because he was Black.
Both Travis and Greg McMichael were offered plea deals by federal prosecutors. While they accepted them, the judge did not agree to the terms that would have seen the men spend the first 30 years of their life sentences in a federal prison.
Because the plea deal was rejected, both McMichaels chose to instead plead not guilty and face trial alongside Bryan.
>>LIVE TRIAL UPDATES:
Thursday, February 17, 2022
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
5:00 PM: Jurors heard the defendants’ racist posts and messages at the federal hate crimes trial of Ahmaud Arbery’s convicted murderers.
Amy Vaughan, an FBI intelligence analyst, spent hours on the stand detailing the evidence, which came from the cell phones and social media accounts of Travis McMichael and Roddie Bryan. Investigators could not get into Greg McMichael’s phone because they couldn’t break the password, but recovered some social media information from his iCloud.
Having spent a lot of time working on terrorism cases, Vaughan testified hate crimes and terrorism crimes share similar characteristics: motivation.
Vaughan showed the jury a video Travis McMichael put up about going hunting, doing a little bushwhacking and scouting for pigs, bring home some bacon for mama. There was a gunshot at the end. McMichael was standing by a “No Trespassing” sign.
The names of the people communicating with the defendants in these messages were redacted for the exhibits, which used only their initials.
Jury sees first of dozens of text messages/convos between Travis McMichael and others. March 2019, he asks H.B. Where did y’all end up last night? They exchange details about bar hopping; HB writes something that sounds like “niggs everywhere.”
Travis McMichael wrote in reply, “Damn. They ruin everything. That’s why I love what I do. Not a nigger in sight.” HB said, “Ha ha ha. What do you do?” McMichael said, “Government contractor driving boats for Navy & Marines. Love it. Zero n*****s work with me.”
Jan 21, 2019, Travis McMichael talked with someone about meeting at a Cracker Barrel restaurant. M.J. wrote they were parked, and there were “hood rats” there. Travis wrote, “Need to change the name from Cracker Barrel to N****r Bucket.”
In a convo with J.M. and Travis McM, August 2019: JM wrote, I thought the n*****s in Saint Mary’s were bad but nothing compared to this s**t up here. Travis: They’re bad. JM: Went in damn McDonald’s on Glynn Ave. TM: Part of n****rville, my friend.
McMichael sent a friend a video which dubbed a racist song called “Alabama N****r” over video of a young Black child dancing on the “Ellen” TV show.
A conversation Travis McMichael had with one person about getting a CDL had the friend complaining about “n*****s” in the process. There was also a text laughing about a “Halloween winner:” a man in blackface with a red splotch on a hoodie--a crude reference to Trayvon Martin’s killing, testified the FBI’s Vaughan.
Travis McMichael told someone, “The southern white male is the most discriminated human in the United States.”
Texts between Travis McMichael and C.M. in Feb 2019 feature laughter as CM realizes “zoodles” Travis is eating are zucchini noodles. CM jokes, “White people.” Travis: “I’d rather say zoodle every day the rest of my life than ever be a n*****r.” CM: Good point.
Travis McMichael texted his friend a photo of someone who appears to be intellectually disabled, in a tee that read, “At least I’m not a n****r.”
They moved to Greg McMichael’s Facebook account where he had posted a meme: White Irish slaves are treated worse than any other race in the US. When is the last time you heard the Irish bitching the world owes them? You won’t, they’re not looking for free s**t, it read in part.
FBI’s Vaughan testified Roddie Bryan’s accounts had evidence of racial animus and racial slurs: the n-word and the word “bootlip.” She had to look it up as she’d never heard it. It’s a derogatory phrase, refers to stereotypical look of Black person’s face.
Bryan’s dislike of Black people and Martin Luther King, Jr., Day was so well known, it was a standing joke with a loved one with the initials P.T. Bryan often communicated with P.T. on WhatsApp, which the analyst explained is commonly used to communicate with people out of the country because it’s free.
Roddie Bryan on WhatsApp with PT in 2019 on MLK Day. PT: Hope you took today off to resume your grand marshal position, haha. Vaughan testifies it was an inside joke between the pair--he would never do that “because he doesn’t particularly care for Black people” or King.
Bryan replied, “I’m working so all the n*****s can take off. Happy milk day.” Another convo on MLK Day 2020: I know you’re busy with grand marshal duties. Bryan: I bet y’all are truly having a monkey parade over there.
PT made some reference to where they currently are not being different from Gloucester Street, which Vaughan testifies was part of the MLK Day parade route in Brunswick. Bryan called it a “monkey parade.”
Roddie Bryan texted J.C. on MLK Day 2020, Happy bootlip day. JC: Good to be working, happy coon day. Bryan: I worked like a n****r today.
FBI’s Vaughan says MLK Day is not the only day Roddie Bryan used racial slurs. In June 2019 he told someone about a breakup he’d had & the woman was staying with a white female relative who “doesn’t have the one n****r baby daddy, but probably has another by now,” he said.
Feb 19, 2020--four days before Arbery’s shooting--Roddie Bryan got forwarded a message his daughter had written; she had broken up with some guy who didn’t treat her well, and now was dating a new guy who “loves her & cares about her education. He’s Black and his parents are white but it’s just a color, it doesn’t define him or make me love him less...” the message said, explaining that the man’s mother is also a nurse who was trying to help her.
Roddie Bryan tried to call PT, who sent the message. Texted back, are you coming to meet your future son-in-law? PT said, I chartered a plane so you can fly down with them. Bryan said, He’d fit right in with the monkeys. PT: LOL
PT wrote, She must be done with me, this is the only thing I said I could never accept.
Roddie Bryan texted someone else that day about his daughter, saying, “She has her a n****r now. I’ve been calling it for a while. Not surprised.”
PT makes clear that in her view, the daughter is now “shunning” the family because she’s dating a Black person.
The prosecution looked for comments and posts made on social media, as well, getting a search warrant to see where/on what the comments they could see on other people’s posts had been made.
Travis McMichael commented, “goddamn savages” on a post of grocery store surveillance video of a Black person who was a white woman’s purse-snatcher.
A conversation two months before Ahmaud Arbery shooting has lots of “n****r” references from the younger McMichael, describing a fight outside a local business and a couple of robberies, all on one night. “Full moon brings out the worst of those savages I guess. I hate those bastards. They ruin everything,” he wrote.
McMichael also said some uncle’s daughter was “knocked up by n****r boyfriend.” Roddie Bryan also associated Black people with criminality, according to things on his phone, testifies FBI’s Vaughan.
Tuesday, February 15, 2022
5:00 PM:
4:45 PM:
3:45 PM: No one rendered aid to Ahmaud Arbery as he lay suffering from gunshots in the street.
AUSA Bernstein notes Greg McMichael told police that the man his son Travis had shot was “still breathing.” Agent Dial testifies that No, none of the three defendants ever tried to render aid to Arbery.
The prosecutor keeps parsing through segments of Greg McMichael’s comments on bodycam video, pausing so Agent Dial can illuminate them. Dial says Arbery never broke into the house under construction; it didn’t have doors, or No Trespassing/Keep Out signs. Government: Ahmaud going onto someone’s property--is it trespass at least? Dial testifies it wasn’t under GA law because that requires someone be told to leave and either refuse, or to leave and come back.
Greg McMichael’s statements to police about the number of times Arbery visited the house or what he allegedly did in Satilla Shores is changing and reducing as he retells his story, the prosecutor notes. ASAC Dial testifies Greg McMichael said Arbery had been caught on video “breaking into places,” but Arbery had never gone into any Satilla Shores places except the house under construction.
ASAC Dial testifies Greg McMichael had never met Arbery, only seen him on video in that house walking around. Still on the scene after the deadly shooting, McMichael “called him ‘an asshole.’”
2:40 PM: Prosecutors turn to statements made by the defendants. Greg McMichael first spoke to GCPD Ofcr. Brandeberry, says Agent Dial; he tells his story more than once.
Bodycam: Hey sir, says officer. Greg McMichael says he’s trying to call his wife. Launches into story: This guy who we’ve seen numerous times breaking into houses comes hauling ass He’s hooked up. I ran in the house: Travis! The guy who broke in the house!
Greg McMichael on Bodycam: I said come on let’s go! Travis runs gets his shotgun cause the other night the guy stuck his hand in his pants. I grab my .357 Magnum--old Glynn County PD issue, by the way, when I was a cop. We take off.
G McMichael: We see him come around the corner & yell Stop, Stop! He just keeps running. He’s looking at us, he’s this close. Then Roddie comes. The guy turns around. Roddie pulls out & kinda blocks him. I said Travis, go back that way, we’ll head him off!
Greg McMichael details the continued chase of Ahmaud Arbery and the repeated changes of direction as they pursued him: The guy’s looking right dead at us he’s right here, from me to you! Travis gets out with the damn shotgun. The guy turns and comes at him and they start wrestling and Travis shoots him right in the damn chest. He had no--the guy was trying to take the shotgun away.
GCPD: Do me a favor, hang tight.
GM: I would like to get his blood off--I rolled him to check his pulse...he didn’t have anything in his hand.
1:15 PM: Richard Dial, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, is on the stand. Dial was the GBI’s lead investigator of Ahmaud Arbery’s fatal shooting.
The jury is watching other neighborhood security videos that ASAC Dial identifies for them, which show Ahmaud Arbery leaving the framed-up house and running down the street. When Arbery passed the McMichaels’, Greg was working on boat cushions in the driveway. Dial testifies that Greg McMichael went into the house to get his son. Both men grabbed their weapons--Greg, a .357 from his bedroom; Travis, a Remington 12-gauge shotgun. They got into Travis’s white F150. Neither called 911. Greg left his phone at home.
Travis McMichael turned right down Burford, the same direction Ahmaud Arbery had run. They first caught up to him in front of Roddie Bryan’s house, #307. Arbery changed direction and tried to run back. Bryan was working out front of his house.
Bryan was on the front porch. Dial testifies Bryan never said he knew Ahmaud Arbery or the McMichaels. Bryan yelled at the truck driver, “Y’all got him?” Bryan did not ask Ahmaud if he was okay, or ask the men in the truck why they were chasing him.
Bryan got his keys from the house, as the McMichaels kept pursuing Arbery and caught up to him again at Burford and Zellwood. Travis tried to block Arbery’s path. Greg tried to go around the truck to engage Arbery, who changed direction and ran back up Burford.
Dial testifies Bryan in his black truck now also in pursuit, tried to block Arbery’s path. Arbery made contact w/his truck’s door w/his hand. Glynn Co. Police found a dent in the truck, white fibers consistent with Arbery’s shirt, a finger swipe & palm print.
Arbery’s quickest path of travel out of Satilla Shores--Satilla Drive, not turning onto Holmes--was blocked by Roddie Bryan’s truck. He’d shot forward into the intersection. Ahmaud Arbery was running from Bryan when he went down Holmes, testifies Agent Dial.
Greg McMichael was by now in the bed of Travis’s pickup; he’d been in his grandson’s child seat before getting out on Burford. Travis McMichael got out of his truck at door with his shotgun; he raises it as Ahmaud Arbery runs toward him. Arbery changes direction.
Arbery runs around passenger side of truck. When he’s at front of passenger side, Travis McMichael had moved from around the open driver’s door to the front of his truck. When Arbery reached front of truck and turned left, “he was shot by Travis McMichael.”
Greg McMichael called 911 near the end of the chase. Neither McMichael or Roddie Bryan called 911 after setting out after Ahmaud Arbery at any other time. Jury hears the 911 call. Now jury will see bodycam of Ofcr. R. Minshew responding to shooting scene.
12:30 PM: The third witness of the trial was Sgt. Sheila Ramos. She is with the Glynn County Police Department’s evidence and crime scene unit.
Ramos was the responding investigator the day Ahmaud Arbery was shot. The prosecution entered into evidence many of the photos she took at the crime scene, including close-up and graphic images of Arbery--one of which showed the wound to the center of Mr. Arbery’s chest.
Of note, she mentioned that McMichael’s truck and Mr. Brian’s truck were not within the crime scene police tape perimeter.
During a recess, defense attorney Copeland raised the prospect that one of the jurors was dozing off.
Judge Wood said that she did not observe that and was paying close attention. Wood noted that she has a clear view of everything: “I can assure you there is not a sleepy eye,” she said.
She directed attorney Copeland to bring the issue up again if she has any concerns on that front.
10:50 AM: Albenze saw Ahmaud Arbery inside the Larry English home under construction that Feb. 23. Arbery ran out of the house with long strides, sort of loping. Albenze said No, he had no reason to think Arbery had taken anything or would hurt anyone.
Albenze had seen security cam videos from English of a Black guy on the property, as well as of a white couple there. He remembers seeing the Black fella on the dock, just looking around. He called Glynn Co. PD when he saw Arbery there again. “It seemed suspicious.”
Albenze called the Glynn Co. PD’s non-emergency number to “send somebody to check it out.” He didn’t call 911 because he had no reason to think it was an emergency: “It was just a fella in a house.”
Albenze testified he would have made the non-emergency call to police no matter the race of the person who was inside it.
He acknowledged that he grabbed his pistol in addition to his phone. Surveillance camera footage from a neighbor showed Albenze waving his arms in the direction that Arbery had run. The prosecution later pointed out that the McMichaels’ truck had already passed him in pursuit of Arbery. Asked why he didn’t pull out the pistol he’d grabbed from inside or why he didn’t chase the jogging man himself, he answered, “Not my job.”
After the shooting, Mr. Albenze returned to his house and “got into my roommate’s vodka.” He said that was extremely unusual for him, but that he was very upset.
A reporter notes that Albenze seems “permanently troubled by the events that took place that day.”
10:00 AM: Matt Albenze takes the stand. He is a 32-year resident of Satilla Shores; raised his family there.
[ Click here for a link to a Twitter thread with a recap of his testimony from last fall. ]
9:00 AM: The prosecution’s first witness is a Satilla Shores resident. Daniel Allcott says the neighbors had been abuzz on Facebook about some property crimes occasionally plaguing the neighborhood.
Allcott describes hearing three loud bangs on Feb. 23, 2020; his wife said, Those are gunshots. He got his wife and baby inside the house to make sure they were safe.
Alcott went outside and recognized Travis McMichael and Greg McMichael, whom he recognized. Travis was sitting off to the side. He saw Roddie Bryan start speaking to a policeman. Greg McMichael was standing near a white truck. He heard “bits and pieces” of Greg McMichael’s statements to police.
He said that he thought it was surprising that Greg McMichael was allowed to make a phone call from the crime scene with the police present.
Allcott never saw anyone tending to the shooting victim, Ahmaud Arbery, in the street. At the beginning, he “did see a police officer kneeling down, but that was about it.”
Yellow caution tape crossed his property. Shell casings and blood were seen in his grass. He saw a shotgun nearby.
He details some photos for the jury of the scene, pointing out where things were as well as Arbery’s body.
The Allcotts don’t live in Satilla Shores any more.
“The house didn’t feel the same,” he said, explaining that he would still “see” images from the scene long after the shooting. “It didn’t feel like home any more.” He said social media posts also caused him concern.
“It just kinda made me feel uneasy,” Allcott testfied. “It was something to the effect of, ‘You’d think thieves would know better than to try that stuff around here.’ It almost seemed as if they were bragging that the neighborhood had the reputation that it had after this.”
One day before the family left, Allcott saw some people--Arbery’s parents--with a small wooden cross, looking around the intersection where Arbery had been killed to figure out where to put it. He told them they could put the memorial in his yard, which was closest to the spot of the deadly shooting.
“How did that make you feel, Mr. Allcott?” a prosecutor asked.
“I felt guilty that it happened outside my house,” he said. “What do you say to a family that’s lost their son?”
On cross-examination by Travis McMichael’s lawyer: Allcott says he ran a lot when he lived there; he had not seen the man he knows now is Ahmaud Arbery running in Satilla Shores.
Hadn’t met Travis McMichael before the shooting and didn’t know he lived there with his parents.
“Did you gauge his reaction?” asked defense attorney Amy Lee Copeland. “See any happiness or joy?”
“No,” said Allcott.
Allcott says the neighborhood Facebook page did have posts about crime, “among other things.” Stolen firearms out of a car.
Allcott saw Travis McMichael sitting off to the side, and both McMichaels speaking to separate officers.
Travis never approached him about the Arbery memorial on his yard or asked Allcott to take it down.
Under cross-exam by Greg McMichael’s lawyer: Allcott says he was not familiar with Larry English or his house under construction.
A. J. Balbo reiterated that it was knowledge throughout the neighborhood that a firearm had been previously stolen from one of the McMichael’s truck.
He says “Yes” to Balbo’s question whether he saw all three defendants talking to police after the shooting, and they appeared to be “cooperating.”
Under cross-exam by Roddie Bryan’s attorney: Allcott doesn’t know whether Bryan was a member of the Facebook group and if he was, never saw any posts from Bryan talking about crime or “bragging” about anything on or after Feb. 23.
Redirect from prosecution:
Did Allcott ever see Travis McMichael try to render aid to Ahmaud Arbery? He didn’t.
Hear Travis express any concern for the young man laying dead in the street? No, he said very quietly. Greg McMichael express any concern for the young man dead in the street? Another quiet “No.” Roddie Bryan express concern? “No.”
About crimes in the neighborhood: Allcott had lived in Satilla Shores for seven years before Feb. 23, 2020. How many violent crimes had there been there? “Prior to February 23, none,” Allcott testified.
For the court reporter and the record, what race are you? “I’m white,” said Alcott. Ms. Copeland asked you about running. Did you run around the neighborhood? Run by Travis and Greg McMichael? Yes. Did either of them ever yell at you to Stop, get on the ground? No. Ever chase you in their truck? No. Ever accuse you of committing a crime while running down the street? No.
Government calls second witness, Matt Albenze.
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Monday, February 14, 2022
A jury was seated Monday morning for the federal hate crimes trial of Ahmaud Arbery’s convicted murderers Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan.
Assistant U. S. Attorney Bobbi Bernstein gave the prosecution’s opening statement.
“I want to talk to you about what turned out to be the last day of Ahmaud Arbery’s life,” she began. “Twenty-five-year-old Ahmaud put on shorts, running shoes, and he went out for a jog. He ended up on the public streets of Satilla Shores, a nice, quiet neighborhood on the riverfront of Brunswick.”
In Satilla Shores, she says, Arbery ran into the three defendants: Travis McMichael, his father Greg, and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan. “Five terrifying minutes later, Ahmaud was lying dead in the street, having been shot by Travis McMichael.”
Bernstein told jurors they would hear and see evidence of how often Arbery went for runs, including into the Satilla Shores neighborhood.
That day, Feb. 23, 2020, he stopped to check out a house that had been under construction for more than a year--no walls, doors, or “keep out” signs. He checked it out, left, and ran up the road. A chase by the defendants followed.
She says that the defendants “decided that the Black man must have been in their neighborhood to commit crimes.” She discussed how Travis McMichael was armed with a shotgun that he pointed at Arbery near the end of the chase, demanding, “Stop! Drop! Get on the ground!”
Bernstein simulated holding a gun, and repeated what was said at the scene by Greg McMichael: “Stop or I’ll blow your fucking head off. "
“Ahmaud couldn’t run the other way,” she said, “because defendant Bryan was driving up behind him, effectively forcing him toward the armed McMichaels.”
He was facing “multiple deadly threats” and tried to defend himself, running toward the most immediate threat--Travis McMichael--to try to disarm him. “But Arbery was no match for a Remington shotgun and Travis got off one shot.
And then another.
And then another.”
Bernstein said that the jury will hear the defendants in their own words, and that those words will prove their actions were motivated by racism.
Bernstein told jurors much of what got us here is not in dispute; the question is WHY. They made assumptions about Arbery based on the color of his skin.
It’s about why defendants did what they did, why the McMichaels had it out for Ahmaud Arbery even though they’d never met him, and why Bryan so willingly jumped into the middle of something he knew absolutely nothing about.
They’re not charged with murder, but with three specific federal crimes all tied to that terrifying, threatening chase through Satilla Shores. The shooting and death are important because they resulted from that chase at the heart of this federal case.
Bernstein apologized for the language she was about to use in detailing Travis McMichael’s frequent use of racial epithets. He wrote to a friend that he loved his federal contractor job because “Zero niggers work with me...They ruin everything. That’s why I love what I do now. Not a nigger in sight.”
The younger McMichael used the n-word slur often, and also frequently referred to Black people as animals, criminals, monkeys, sub-human savages.
Bernstein pointed out that on Feb. 11, 2020, the McMichaels were told by police that Arbery had visited the house in question before but had never done anything wrong. She also made note that a white couple had entered the house previously, and no one was concerned about that.
AUSA Bernstein says Greg McMichael’s digital footprint isn’t as large because he was an infrequent user of social media, and investigators were not able to get into his phone. But, she told jurors, you will hear from people who know him.
A witness will recall when she worked with Greg McMichael when he was an investigator with the district attorney’s office. Making conversation, she remarked how bad it was that Julian Bond--a prominent civil rights activist who co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s and a former Georgia state legislator--had died.
“Bad?!,” she said McMichael angrily replied, “I wish he’d been put in the ground years ago. He’s nothing but trouble. Those Blacks are nothing but trouble.” Then, he went on a minutes-long rant about Black people.
The prosecutor says Roddie Bryan told police the day of the chase, when he saw Ahmaud Arbery and the white truck in pursuit, he saw a Black guy running and knew he had to be a criminal. “Instinct” told him, he said.
Four days before Arbery’s fatal shooting, Bryan learned his daughter was dating a Black man. He wrote to someone his daughter “has her a nigger now.” He would refer to the man as that slur, or as a “monkey.”
Bernstein told jurors, This trial is not about racial slurs; no matter how offensive, they’re legal. But they can give you important evidence why a defendant did what they did.
There were three defense opening statements. The first was by attorney AJ Balbo, for Greg McMichael.
Balbo says the death of Arbery was horrific, a tragic event, that could’ve been prevented in so many ways. He says there is evidence Greg McMichael used racial slurs in past. “In his 60+ years, he’s said the types of things that make people cringe, and feel disgusted,” said Balbo.
He says, I’m not going to tell you Greg McMichael is an angel, that he never used coarse and offensive language; you’re not going to hear me say that’s not a big deal. It’s evidence you’ll have to put into context with other evidence you’ll hear. Balbo says that the events of that day were “not because he (Arbery) was a Black man, it was because he was THE man committing a crime.”
He also noted Greg McMichael is the one who decided to publicly release the video because he believed he had done nothing wrong.
Defense attorney Amy Lee Copeland, for Travis McMichael, told jurors they will see video which shows them the last minutes of a young man’s life. It is hard to watch, it’s emotional, it might make you cry.
Copeland: You’ll see Mr. #AhmaudArbery run to one side, come back, engage in hand-to-hand combat with Travis McMichael over a shotgun. You’ll hear my client was in shock after this; not that he was happy, gleeful, thought this was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
You may think what you see on the video is wrong, but you’re here to determine what led up to that moment.
She acknowledges Travis McMichael has a heavy digital footprint of evidence of his use of racial slurs.
The day of the chase, Copeland says, Travis was trying to be a good neighbor.
“At the end of this case, I’m not going to ask you to like Travis McMichael. I’m not going to ask you determine he’s done nothing wrong. I’m going to ask you to return a verdict of not guilty on all counts,” said Copeland.
Defense Opening #3: Pete Theodocion for William “Roddie” Bryan.
“I didn’t come 3.5 hours from home and stay in a motel for 3 weeks to excuse or defend racism. I’m not going to do it. I won’t do it. I’ll never do it,” said Theodocion.
Theodocion says Roddie Bryan’s not perfect; he has said things he knows look bad and that he’s embarrassed by and sorry for. You’re not going to see evidence of a man obsessed with race, he tells jurors. You’re going to see different levels of racism--not a man who sees world through the prism of race.
In February 2020, Ahmaud Arbery didn’t deserve the fate that befell him, says Theodocion. He’d done nothing wrong. You’ll see him in the home--was he there to steal? Didn’t look like it to me. Construction is interesting to anyone--out for a run, walk, ‘I’ll look in there.’
Roddie did not see an African-American male walking, jogging, and assume he was a criminal or see him walk onto a construction project. His introduction to Ahmaud Arbery was being chased in broad daylight with people saying Stop! Stop him!
He tells jurors Bryan did not arm himself with a gun; he only wanted to video what was happening, document it in case the young man was gone before police--whom he assumed had been called--arrived.
Bryan never wanted physical harm to Mr. Arbery, says Theodocion. He didn’t see firearm until right before the shot. “This never happened because of Ahmaud’s race; it would’ve happened if he was white, Hispanic, Asian. It still would’ve been a young man being told Stop! & being chased. The evidence won’t prove this happened because Ahmaud Arbery was using a public road. It would’ve happened if he was running front yard to front yard.
The Government’s first witness is expected on the stand at 9:00 Tuesday morning.