Officer: Defendant changed his story
Testimony: Reason for chasing Arbery shifted
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The man who initiated the chase that ended in Ahmaud Arbery’s death quickly changed his story about why he suspected the 25-year-old Black man running in his neighborhood was a criminal, two police officers testified Tuesday.
Glynn County police officer Jeff Brandeberry told a jury that Greg Mcmichael — one of three white men on trial for murder in the case — at first told him that Arbery had been recorded by security cameras “breaking in all these houses out here.”
“Well, he makes frequent trips to the neighborhood and gets caught on video cameras every third or fourth night breaking into places and no one’s been able to catch him,” Mcmichael
told Brandeberry, who read in open court from a transcript of the conversation recorded by his body camera.
The officer said he spoke to Mcmichael at the scene of the shooting, with Arbery’s body lying under a sheet in the road nearby, as police first responded on Feb. 23, 2020.
Mcmichael’s account shifted when he spoke with a Glynn County detective at police headquarters late the same day. After he’d blamed the slain man for break-ins at multiple houses, Mcmichael told Detective Parker Marcy the intruder had targeted a single home — one that was still under construction with no doors or windows.
Marcy testified that Mcmichael told him he had seen “two or three videos” that showed “this guy breaking into or being or wandering around into this house.”
Greg Mcmichael; his adult son, Travis Mcmichael; and neighbor
William “Roddie” Bryan are charged with murder and other crimes in the death of Arbery. Glynn County police never arrested them. Instead, charges came more than two months later when cellphone video of the shooting leaked online and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case. The video sparked an outcry amid a national reckoning over racial injustice.
Prosecutors say the men had no legal reason to pursue Arbery with guns, as there’s no evidence Arbery committed any crimes in the Satilla Shores subdivision outside the port city of Brunswick.
Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski showed the jury security camera video from inside the house under construction recorded just before the deadly chase. Arbery can be seen wandering through the open-framed interior but doesn’t seem to touch anything. He ran after a neighbor outside called police.