The person who shot Ahmed Abery Talking about the murder for the first time on Wednesday, testified in his murder trial that the 25-year-old black man forced him to make a “life and death” decision in an instant by attacking him and grabbing his shotgun.
“I’m thinking about my son,” Travis McMichael, tearful of his face, told the jury before pulling the trigger. “It sounds strange, but this is the first thing that touches me.”
He was the first witness summoned to start their case for the defense attorneys of the three white men accused in Arbery’s death, based on their clients legally trying to stop the theft near them and McMichael firing in self-defense. On the basis of the argument.
On February 23, 2020, Abery was shot and killed after running near the defendant. Two months later, the mobile phone video of his death was leaked online, deepening the nation’s outcry against racial injustice. The family of the murdered man received not only the support of civil rights activists, but also the support of powerful figures such as Georgia Governor and President Joe Biden.
The three people on trial—Travis McMichael; his father Greg McMichael; and neighbor William “Rody” Bryan—have almost no defenders except their lawyers. Travis McMichael’s testimony is the most personal and detailed account of why these people suspected Abery’s wrongdoing and McMichael shot him.
“He took my gun,” 35-year-old McMichael testified. “He hit me. Obviously, he was attacking me. If he gets a shotgun from me, it is a matter of life and death. I will have to stop him from doing so, so I shot.”
He said that since he and his parents moved into the Satilla Shores sub-district outside the port city of Brunswick in 2018, warnings about car break-ins and suspicious persons have been increasing on neighbors and social media.
A man built a house five doors away from McMichaels’s house. After the items on a boat in his open garage were stolen, he installed a security camera. These cameras recorded Arbery for four nights and the day he was killed.
Travis McMichael said that he became aware of the theft when he discovered that Arbery, whom he did not know, was “lurking” and “crawling” outside the unfinished house on February 11, 2020. He testified that when he tried to confront the man, Abery reached out for his belt. McMichael fled and called 911.
“I will not hunt or investigate people who may be carrying weapons,” he testified.
But 12 days later, after his father ran into the house in an “almost crazy state” and told him that “the one who kept breaking into the road” had run past their house, he did chase the same person 12 days later. The father and son were fully armed and set off in Travis McMichael’s pickup truck.
They met Abery who was running, and McMichael said he was driving next to him and shouted Abery to stop and let them talk. McMichael said that when he told Abery “the police were on the road,” Abery ran faster-deepening his suspicion of the man.
A Black pickup driven by Bryan eventually joined the hunt. It was Brian who recorded the shooting on his mobile phone.
McMichael stopped and got out of his truck. Bryan’s mobile phone video shows Arbery running towards the truck. McMichael was standing next to the driver’s side door with a shotgun, while his father was standing in the truck compartment.
McMichael testified that he pointed his gun at Abery-saying that his intention was to make him back-and then Abery turned around and walked around the passenger side.
McMichael said that Abery attacked him immediately: “He was on the front quarter panel on the right hand side. He turned and rushed towards me. It turned on in an instant.”
In the video, the truck blocked the view until the first shot. Then the video showed that when the bleeding Abery punched McMichael, both of them put their hands on the guns. After the third shot, Abery turned and ran away, then fell face down on the street.
The forensic examiner who performed the autopsy said that only two shotguns hit Abery, but each shot was at close range. A man made a hole in the center of his chest. Another person severed an artery near his left armpit and fractured his arm.
Authorities said that McMichael and Bryan chased Abery for five minutes before the shooting and cut off Abery’s escape route with their truck. Greg McMichael told the police that they made him “trapped like a mouse.” Brian said that he had driven Abery off the road with a truck many times.
Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, told reporters outside the courtroom: “Sir. Travis McMichael killed my son based on assumptions. He doesn’t know where Ahmed came from, nor does he Know what Ahmed did. He just took the action in his own hands.”
Brian’s lawyer, Kevin Goff, argued on Wednesday that Brian never intended to hurt Abery, nor did he try to conceal his involvement in the hunt. He pointed out that Bryan publicly shared his video _key evidence_ with the police at the scene.
After High Court Judge Timothy Walmsley rejected a defense lawyer’s request to bar prominent civil rights leaders and other prominent figures from entering the courtroom, the defense began a lawsuit due to COVID-19 precautions. , Court seats are limited.
Pastor Jesse Jackson appeared in court with Abery’s parents for the second time this week. The defendant’s lawyer stated that the presence of Jackson and other supporters of the conviction could have an unfair effect on the jury.
The trial was conducted before a disproportionate white jury in the Green County Courthouse in Coastal Georgia.
The 25-year-old Arbery was studying at a technical college and was preparing to learn to be an electrician like his uncle when he was killed.
Associated Press reporter Kate Bloom Baker contributed to this report in Atlanta.
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