Elder McMichael's role in Arbery's death detailed in testimony

Nov. 10—Greg McMichael had blood on his hand when Glynn County Police officer Jeff Brandeberry approached him on the afternoon of Feb. 23, 2020, in the Satilla Shores neighborhood.

His son, Travis McMichael, had just shot Ahmaud Arbery dead on Holmes Road near Satilla Drive, blasting the 25-year-old unarmed Black man with buckshot as the two men struggled for possession of the younger McMichael's 12-gauge shotgun.

The violent encounter concluded a harried chase in which the McMichaels pursued Arbery in a pickup truck as he ran through the neighborhood for approximately five minutes. William "Roddie" Bryan joined the chase in his own pickup truck after seeing Arbery run past his house on nearby Burford Road with the McMichaels in pursuit.

All three men are White. Arbery was Black.

"He was pretty amped up," Brandeberry testified Tuesday during the third day of testimony in the murder trial of Travis McMichael, 35, Greg McMichael, 65, and Bryan, 52. "He was pretty upset."

Greg McMichael explained to Brandeberry how he got blood on his hands. He had checked Arbery to see if he was armed, he told Brandeberry.

"He said, '(Arbery) was face down and his arm was stuck underneath,'" Brandeberry said under questioning from senior assistant Cobb County District Attorney Linda Dunikoski. "And I don't know if he was going for a weapon or what because at that point he was still breathing."

As first reported in The News in April 2020, it was Greg McMichael who set the events in motion that ultimately led to the shooting death of Arbery and the subsequent arrests of the three men now on trial at the Glynn County Courthouse on a charge of murder and other charges.

During Tuesday proceedings, testimony from Brandeberry and county police detective Parker Marcy delved deeper into the older McMichael's role.

Brandeberry was on the scene that day to conduct the police department's initial lead report, which was first obtained and reported on by The News on April 2. The McMichaels and Bryan were not arrested until May, when the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the investigation. The arrests followed shortly after Bryan's chilling cell phone video of Arbery's shooting death was leaked May 5 and went viral online, sparking national outrage and cries of racial injustice.

Defense attorneys contend Travis McMichael killed Arbery in self defense while the three men were acting within their lawful rights to effect a citizen's arrest. Defense attorneys said the two McMichaels let their law enforcement experience dictate their actions when they decided to pursue Arbery as a burglary suspect.

Greg McMichael had been a Glynn County police officer for several years and worked some 20 years as an investigator with the Brunswick District Attorney's Office before retiring in 2019. He was not a certified law enforcement officer the last years of his service with the Brunswick DA.

Travis McMichael had federal law enforcement training as a Coast Guardsman, said Robert Rubin, his attorney.

Prosecutors contend the three men acted with malice, murdering Arbery while he was out for a jog on a public street on a Sunday afternoon. A former standout linebacker at Brunswick High, Arbery was known to friends and family as an avid jogger who ran just about everywhere.

Brandeberry first interviewed Greg McMichael in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. According to his testimony, McMichael said he was refinishing seat cushions in his garage when Arbery came "hauling ass" past their home on 230 Satilla Drive. Greg McMichael quickly ran inside and alerted his son, Travis McMichael, who had his 5-year-old son over for a weekend visitation.

"He comes hauling ass down the street like somebody's after him," McMichael had told Brandeberry, according to testimony. "So I haul ass into my bedroom to get my .357 Magnum."

Arbery had been seen on security surveillance going into the structure at 220 Satilla Drive, a house in a state of incompletion for about a year with two open garage bays and no doors. Its owner, Larry English of Douglas, said Arbery never took anything or caused harm inside. He had been seen on the structure's surveillance cameras three times between October 2019 and Feb. 11.

English told Satilla Shores residents he thought equipment worth several thousand dollars had been stolen from his boat docked behind the structure. But he later discovered that the theft took place when he had the boat in Douglas.

Travis McMichael was driving down Satilla Drive after dark several days before the shooting when he said he saw Arbery in front of 220 Satilla Drive, according to testimony. He said Arbery hid behind a Porta-a-Potty near the road and reached in toward his pants as if for a gun when McMichael shined a light on him.

"I don't know if the guy's armed because the other night he stuck his hands down his pants. ... ," McMichael told Brandeberry, according to testimony. "I don't take chances."

Diego Perez, who resides in Satilla Shores, showed Greg McMichael the surveillance video with Arbery inside the house English is constructing, Brandeberry said.

"I've seen the videos, so I know what the guy looks like, a Black male ... He's got those (hair) dreads, I don't know what you call them," Greg McMichael told the officer.

During Tuesday's proceedings, prosecutors played surveillance video of Arbery walking inside 220 Satilla Shores moments before he was killed. He walked around benignly inside the structure before stepping back outside.

Dunikoski stopped the video at one point to note when Arbery grabbed at his pants and then keeps walking.

Greg McMichael would later tell county police investigators that Arbery's presence inside 220 Satilla Shores was the main reason he suspected Arbery of wrongdoing, according to testimony. However, he also told investigators that he had no proof Arbery had stolen anything.

According to investigator Marcy, Greg McMichael told him: "I don't think the guy has actually stolen anything out of there. If so, it was early in the process. But he keeps going back over and over again to this damn house."

Arbery left 220 Satilla Drive and ran farther into the neighborhood, drawing Greg McMichael's attention as he went past 232 Satilla Drive. Greg took his .357 Magnum, Travis McMichael grabbed a Remington 12-gauge shotgun and they hopped into the younger McMichael's F-150 white pickup truck.

The McMichaels followed Arbery down Burford Road, drawing Bryan's attention as they went past his residence at 307 Burford Road. Marcy said McMichael told him "they cut (Arbery) off three times" during the pursuit.

Marcy said Greg McMichael tried to talk to Arbery as they pulled alongside him.

According to testimony, Greg McMichael told Arbery, "Stop, stop, stop. We want to talk to you." Marcy said McMichael told detectives he also told Arbery at one point: "I said, 'Stop, you know, I'll blow your f---g head off, or something. I was trying to convey to this guy we were not playing, or whatever."

Greg McMichael can also be heard telling Arbery to stop while talking to 911 dispatchers just before the fatal shooting.

The McMichaels went from Burford Road to Zellwood Drive and looped back around to Holmes Road, stopping in the middle of the street just as Arbery ran toward them with Bryan following in his pickup truck and recording the scene on his phone. Arbery ran around the passenger side of the truck, where the deadly struggle for the shotgun ensued.

Arbery collapsed to the pavement with gunshot wounds to the chest, shoulder and wrist.

By the time of the shooting, Greg McMichael had moved from the crowded cab to the bed of the pickup truck, where he watched with the .357 in hand.

Brandeberry asked the elder McMichael if he saw the gunfire. He said McMichael told him: "I saw 'em, yeah. To be perfectly honest with you, I would have shot him myself because he was just violently. ... "

Dunikoiski asked both detectives if Greg McMichael ever mentioned a citizen's arrest when questioned. Both said no.

Under questioning from defense attorneys, the two Glynn County law enforcement officers said Greg McMichael mentioned several thefts and burglaries that had taken place recently in Satilla Shores. When Dunikoski asked Marcy how many burglaries had been reported in Satilla Shores from January 2019 to the date of the killing, defense attorneys objected, saying that Marcy was not the person to speak on such information.

Eastern Circuit Court Judge Timothy Walmsly of Chatham County sustained the objection.

Jason Sheffield, representing Travis McMichael, later asked Marcy to comment on three reports of theft or suspicious persons in 2019. The prosecution's objection to the request was sustained.

According to a request for public records from The News in 2020, the only property crime reported from January 2020 to the date of Arbery's death occurred at 230 Satilla Shores. Travis McMichael had his handgun was stolen from his unlocked pickup on the morning of Jan. 1.

McMichael told Marcy he suspected Arbery of stealing the gun but said he had no proof, saying, "The thing that was doubtful ... was that my son had a missing pistol. Well, I don't know for fact and I don't have a reason other than this guy's been doing this crap (at 220 Satilla Drive) over and over."

The trial resumes at 9 a.m. Wednesday.