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.
Charlie Kirk has been posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump.
The USA’s highest civilian honour was received by the conservative activist’s widow, Erika, at the White House.
Mr Kirk, 31, was fatally shot on 10 September while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University.
He founded Turning Point USA and toured American university campuses, debating students about current affairs.
Erika Kirk at the White House. Pic: Reuters
Erika Kirk and Donald Trump. Pic: Reuters
Addressing those attending the ceremony in the White House rose garden, the US president said they were there to “honour and remember a fearless warrior for liberty” and a “beloved leader who galvanised the next generation”.
He said Mr Kirk’s name was being entered “forever into the eternal roster of true American heroes”.
Mr Trump described Charlie Kirk as an “American patriot of the deepest conviction, the finest quality and the highest calibre”.
He said his nation had been “robbed” of an “extraordinary champion”.
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Has Charlie Kirk become a MAGA ‘martyr’?
And Mr Trump said Mr Kirk was assassinated in the “prime of his life for boldly speaking the truth, for living his faith, and relentlessly fighting for a better and stronger America”.
The ceremony coincided with what would have been Mr Kirk’s 32nd birthday.
Mr Trump described Erika Kirk, now head of Turning Point USA, as someone who had “endured unspeakable hardship with unbelievable strength”.
Read more:
What do we know about Erika Kirk?
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Charlie Kirk. File pic: AP
A 22-year-old man, Tyler Robinson, from the city of Washington in Utah has been charged with Mr Kirk’s murder. Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty.
At a memorial event held at a stadium in Arizona, Erika Kirk told an enormous crowd she forgave her husband’s killer.
“The answer to hate is not hate,” she said.
ChatGPT will soon write erotica for verified adults, according to OpenAI’s chief executive, as well as becoming more “human-like”.
As part of the company’s policy to “treat adult users like adults”, the chatbot will be able to create sexual content once age verification is fully rolled out across the tool.
“In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our ‘treat adult users like adults’ principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults,” said Sam Altman in a post on X.
The announcement wasn’t popular with everyone.
One X user asked Mr Altman: “Why do age-gates always have to lead to erotica? Like, I just want to be able to be treated like an adult and not a toddler, that doesn’t mean I want perv-mode activated.”
“You won’t get it unless you ask for it,” he responded.
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New ‘AI you can trust’
According to the announcement, ChatGPT had become more restrictive and “less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems” while the company tackled problems concerning the chatbot and vulnerable users.
“We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues,” Mr Altman said. “Given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.”
In August, the family of teenager Adam Raine began suing OpenAI over his death. It was the first time the company had faced a wrongful death lawsuit.
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Parents suing OpenAI after death of son
Adam’s parents accused Sam Altman of putting profit over safety after ChatGPT instructed their son on how to end his life, and even offered to write a suicide note for him.
At the time, OpenAI told Sky News it learned its safeguards “can sometimes become less reliable in long interactions where parts of the model’s safety training may degrade” and said it would continually improve those safeguards.
“Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases,” said Mr Altman on Tuesday evening.
“In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!).”
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Hunger strikers want end to ‘superhuman’ AI
The latest ChatGPT model, 5o, has faced criticism by users for being less playful and creative than the previous model.
Now, OpenAI will allow 5o to “respond in a very human-like way and “use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend” if users want that option.
Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI. File pic: AP
In response to Mr Altman’s post, one X user said: “About time… ChatGPT used to feel like a person you could actually talk to, then it turned into a compliance bot.
“If it can be made fun again without losing the guardrails, that’s a huge win. People don’t want chaos, just authenticity.”
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New ‘AI you can trust’ for when safety matters
Mr Altman responded: “For sure; we want that too.
“Almost all users can use ChatGPT however they’d like without negative effects; for a very small percentage of users in mentally fragile states there can be serious problems.
“0.1% of a billion users is still a million people.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
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