AFTER KILLING, A RACIAL SLUR
Agent testifies at Ahmaud Arbery hearing
The white man caught on video gunning down unarmed black jogger Ahmaud Arbery was overheard uttering a racial slur over the victim’s body, a state investigator testified Thursday.
Richard Dial, a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said co-defendant William “Roddie” Bryan, who filmed part of the incident, told authorities he heard Travis McMichael say “f—-ing n——r” moments after the Feb. 23 shooting.
It was one of several stunning details shared during a probable cause hearing Thursday at the Glynn County courthouse. McMichael and his ex-cop father, 64-year-old Gregory, joined the hearing via a video link from the county’s jail, where they’re being held on felony murder and aggravated assault charges.
Originally no charges were filed in the shooting near Brunswick, Ga., but the release of the video on May 5 sparked outrage and led to the GBI taking up the case.
Bryan, who’s accused of ambushing and blocking Arbery to allow McMichaels to kill him, did not appear in court but was represented by his attorney.
The case has fueled widespread anger and allegations of racial profiling, with critics describing the killing as a modern-day lynching.
The hearing — which lasted more than six hours and sometimes felt like a “mini-trial,” as special prosecutor Jesse Evans put it — offered a glimpse into the possible defense strategies as the case moves to trial.
Defense attorneys portrayed their clients as three concerned “patriots” trying to carry out a citizen’s arrest following a string of burglaries in the neighborhood. Bryan’s attorney, meanwhile, repeatedly tried to downplay his client’s involvement or potential racial bias against Arbery.
But prosecutors convinced the judge to keep the three men in jail and leave the charges intact. Evans told the court the evidence will show Arbery “was chased, hunted down and ultimately executed” while jogging just 2 miles from his Brunswick home in broad daylight.
Dial testified that Bryan and the McMichaels chased the 25-year-old victim for about seven minutes, with Bryan hitting Arbery with his truck during the pursuit. Arbery managed to escape and change direction multiple times before he was eventually shot.
The defendants, who avoided charges for over two months, told police in February they had “a gut feeling” the young man was behind a series of break-ins in the neighborhood. The pair claimed Arbery attacked them during the confrontation, according to Dial’s testimony.
During cross-examination, Dial said Travis McMichael told police he raised the weapon about 90 feet away from Arbery and warned him to stop and get on the ground. But the victim then ran around the right side of the
McMichaels’ truck before the pair got into a scuffle, the video shows.
Dial said Arbery’s actions suggest he was the one acting in self-defense.
“I don’t believe it was self-defense for Mr. McMichael. I believe it was self-defense for Mr. Arbery,” the investigator told the court. “I think Mr. Arbery was trying to get away. He couldn’t, so he chose to fight.”
Arbery was shot twice in the chest and once in his right wrist, authorities said.
Dial also revealed Thursday that after the McMichaels were arrested in early May, Gregory McMichael described 50-year-old Bryan, who’s also white, as an “ally” during a jailhouse phone call.
The GBI agent also claims to have evidence of Travis McMichael, 34, using racial slurs multiple times in the past. The former Coast Guard boarding officer once told a friend he loves his job because he was “out on a boat and there weren’t any n——-s” around, according to Dial’s investigation.
In addition, the agent said that McMichael family members took photos of the crime scene and shared them on social media.
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the shooting as a possible hate crime.
Arbery’s mother watched some of the hearing Thursday but walked out of the courtroom after the defense team began questioning her son’s actions and even his mental health prior to the shooting. Attorney S. Lee Merritt, who is representing the Arbery family, said Wanda Cooper-Jones was “exhausted by the character assassination of her son.”
“Mr. Arbery’s mental health, his kindergarten records, his high school basketball records, his football stats had nothing to do with this trial and was inappropriate in this case,” Merritt told reporters outside the courthouse.
A witness in the case has previously said the McMichaels had a confrontation with Arbery about two weeks before the shooting after seeing the victim coming out of a home under construction. Arbery was caught on surveillance video visiting that property multiple times, including moments before the fatal encounter, but authorities and the homeowner say there’s no evidence the victim ever stole anything from the site.
A local police commissioner has also said that the last burglary in the area was reported more than seven weeks earlier, on New Year’s Day.