Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery who was shot dead ‘tried to run… and get away’, court told
A group of men chased a black jogger – with one warning “I’ll blow your f****** head off!” – because they assumed he had committed a crime, a court has heard.
Ahmaud Arbery was pursued for five minutes by the group before being shot dead near Brunswick, Georgia, on 23 February 2020.
A phone video of the killing sparked outrage, and jurors were told on Friday that Mr Arbery had given the group no reason to suspect him of anything.
Travis McMichael fired the fatal shots, police say. Pic: Georgia Bureau of Investigations
“They assumed that he must have committed some crime that day,” prosecutor Linda Dunikoski told the court.
“He tried to run around their truck and get away from these strangers, total strangers, who had already told him that they would kill him. And then they killed him,” she said.
The 25-year-old was chased by Greg McMichael, 65, and his son Travis McMichael, 35, who grabbed weapons and got in their truck as he ran though their neighbourhood.
The court was told that William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, a neighbour, joined in and recorded the video of Travis McMichael shooting Mr Arbery three times.
The chase began after another neighbour saw Mr Arbery wandering inside a home under construction, where security cameras had recorded him before, and called a police non-emergency number.
Greg McMichael told police that at one point he had shouted at Mr Arbery: “Stop or I’ll blow your f****** head off!”, the prosecutor said.
William ‘Roddie’ Bryan was a neighbour who joined the chase. Pic: AP
“All three of these defendants did everything they did based on assumptions – not on facts, not on evidence,” Ms Dunikoski told the jury.
“And they made decisions in their driveways based on those assumptions that took a young man’s life.”
Mr Arbery’s mother cried out and sobbed as the grainy video of the killing was played to the court.
The prosecutor described how it shows Travis McMichael raise his shotgun as Mr Arbery approaches and tries to run around the opposite side of the truck.
He is then seen stepping in front of the vehicle to confront the fleeing man.
Greg McMichael, a former investigator for the local district attorney, told police they suspected Mr Arbery was a burglar and were trying to make a citizen’s arrest.
People have been on the streets of Brunswick protesting over the case
He said his son fired in self-defence after Mr Arbery attacked him with his fists and tried to take Travis McMichael’s gun.
The men’s lawyers say the neighbourhood was “on edge” over reports of thefts.
“It is a citizen’s job to help the police, and the law authorises that,” said Robert Rubin, a lawyer representing Travis McMichael.
Mr Rubin described Mr Arbery as “an intruder” who had been recorded four times “plundering around” a house under construction.
The video of the chase was played in court. Pic: AP
He called the footage of his death “a horrible, horrible video” but said his client had acted to protect himself after Mr Arbery refused to stop and lunged towards him and his gun.
“Travis McMichael is acting in self-defence,” he told the jury.
“He did not want to encounter Ahmaud Arbery physically. He was only trying to stop him for the police.”
Prosecutors insist Mr Arbery was just out jogging, had no weapons, keys or wallet on him – and had committed no crimes in the area.
Ms Dunikoski described him as an “avid runner” who often ran in the neighbourhood – less than two miles from his home.
“You’re going to be able to see his Nike shoes,” she told the court, “where he had basically no tread left on them whatsoever”.
The lawyer said the owner of the half-built property – where Mr Arbery had been seen on previous occasions – believed he was using a water source to quench his thirst and that nothing was taken.
Lawyer Linda Dunikoski
The case was largely ignored until the video was leaked online in May last year.
There has been controversy over the the jury, which is made up of 11 white people and one black person.
It took more than two weeks to select from more than 200 people – who were asked in detail what they knew about the case and how many times they had watched the video.
Prosecutors have objected to the final jury and said defence lawyers cut eight potential jurors because they were black.
The judge conceded there appeared to be “intentional discrimination”.
However, he said state law limited his authority to intervene as the defence gave non-racial reasons for excluding the black candidates.
All three defendants have pleaded not guilty to murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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