More officers take the stand on Day 4 of murder trial

Nov. 11—Greg McMichael did not know whether Ahmaud Arbery had committed a crime on Feb. 23, 2020, the day his son shot the unarmed 25-year-old Black man to death after a chase through the Satilla Shores neighborhood, according testimony Wednesday at the Glynn County Courthouse.

Glynn County Police Sgt. Roderick Nohilly testified that he interviewed Greg McMichael at police headquarters several hours after the incident, which is the focal point of the trial of three White men accused of murder in Arbery's death.

Greg McMichael, 65, his son Travis McMichael, 35, and 52-year-old William "Roddie" Bryan are being tried for murder and other charges.

Travis McMichael fatally shot Arbery with a 12-gauge shotgun on Holmes Road near Satilla Drive, the culmination of a pursuit in which the three men pursued Arbery in pickup trucks for roughly five minutes as he ran through the neighborhood.

Prosecutors contend the defendants maliciously pursued Arbery without motive, blocking all avenues of escape, trapping Arbery and killing him. Defense attorneys maintain Arbery died as a result of a self-defense action while the three defendants were attempting to effect a citizen's arrest.

But after four days of testimony from Glynn County police officers, no crime on Arbery's part has emerged.

In his testimony, Nohilly said Greg McMichael could not say whether Arbery had done anything criminal before the father and son began chasing him. During an interview with Greg McMichael at police department headquarters several hours after the killing, McMichael said the speed with which Arbery ran past his house made him suspect he was running from a burglary or some other crime.

Nohilly asked the elder McMichael directly: "Did this guy break into a house today?"

McMichael responded: "Well, that's just it. I don't know. That's what I told what's her name (Sgt. Oliver) out there. I said, 'Listen, you might want to go knock on some doors because this guy did something that he was fleeing from ... and he might have gone into somebody's house."

Nohilly said he recognized Greg McMichael from McMicheal's former job as an investigator with the Brunswick DA's office, where he worked for some 20 years before retiring in 2019.

Defense attorneys have portrayed the defendants as men protecting their community and family from a perceived rash of burglaries and thefts in the neighborhood. The defense said the two McMichaels drew from their law enforcement backgrounds in conducting themselves during the pursuit.

Travis McMichael received federal law enforcement training as a Coast Guardsman, his attorney Robert Rubin said. Greg McMichael was not a certified law enforcement officer his last years with the Brunswick DA, though he had served as a Glynn County police officer for seven years before becoming an investigator.

Greg McMichael grabbed a .357 handgun and Travis McMichael grabbed a 12-gauge shotgun, jumped in a Ford F-150 pickup truck and pursued Arbery after he ran past their 230 Satilla Drive residence. The pursuit led to Burford Road and eventually past 307 Burford Road, where Bryan was outside his residence watching the commotion, testimony and video have shown.

"I look up, see a Black guy running down the road," Bryan is quoted as telling former county police detective Stephan Lowry.

Now a college student and part-time computer repairman, Lowry was the detective on call the day of the shooting.

"Y'all got this?" Bryan asked before joining the chase in his Chevrolet Silverado.

Prosecutors have maintained that none of the defendants had grounds to pursue Arbery.

Larissa Ollivierre, an attorney with the Cobb DA, asked Lowry whether Bryan ever asked Arbery if he needed help or if he was OK. He had not.

During an interview with Lowry at police headquarters, Bryan recounted how he used his Chevrolet Silverado to block Arbery's progress on several occasions, including once when he "angled at" Arbery and forced him off the road across from this Burford Road residence, according to testimony.

Lowry said police took Arbery's palm prints and fibers from a spot on the pickup behind the driver's side door.

Lowry said Bryan told him if he had injured Arbery with the truck, it might have prevented his death. "I didn't hit him," Bryan told Lowry. "I wish I would have. Maybe it would have taken him out and (he) would not have got shot."

Lowry said Bryan used his truck to turn Arbery's direction at one point, sending him back up Holmes Road.

"So that's when Mr. Arbery made the decision to go down the road to where he was eventually killed?" Ollivierre asked.

"Yes," Lowry said.

The pursuit ended with Bryan following Arbery and recording it on his cellphone as Arbery ran up Holmes Road, where the Ford F-150 was stopped in the road with Travis McMichael standing beside the passenger side door with the shotgun and Greg McMichael in the truck bed with his handgun.

"He was trapped like a rat," Nohilly quoted Greg McMichael telling him. "I think he was wanting to flee and he realized that something, you know ... he was not going to get away."

In the video that sparked national outrage and cries of racial injustice, Arbery ran around the passenger side of the truck, then surged toward Travis McMichael, who was in front of the pickup truck at the time.

Travis McMichael fired buckshot three times as they struggled for possession of the shotgun. Arbery stumbled to the pavement with fatal wounds to the chest, shoulder and wrist.

Travis McMichael had pointed the shotgun at Arbery as he ran toward them and Greg McMichael can be heard shouting, "Stop, damn it! Stop!" in the 911 call he made from the truck bed with his son's cell phone.

"And there was no hesitation on his part when it came to Travis," Greg McMichael told Nohilly. "That's what's in my mind. If he had gotten that shotgun away and there was any separation between him and Travis, I was going to cap his ass."

Frank Hogue, Greg McMichael's attorney, asked Nohilly if he understood that Greg McMichael was conveying his fears that Arbery might get possession of his son's shotgun. Nohilly concurred. From a law enforcement standpoint, Hogue asked if Nohilly understood the McMichaels' decision to draw weapons.

"No, I don't just pull my gun," responded Nohilly, a veteran of more than 20 years in law enforcement.

Hogue asked if Nohilly raises his voice to gain compliance with suspects. "Maybe."

He asked Nohilly if he would pull his gun when waiting on back up officers. "Not always."

"If you think he is trying to take your gun and kill you?"

"Once again," Nohilly said, "it depends on the circumstances."

"If he seems to be putting his hand on your gun?"

"At that point, it might be true," Nohilly said.

Stray buckshot from Travis McMichael's shotgun went through a front window at 232 Satilla Drive, embedding itself in the wall of the home Kellie Parr grew up in. Now a St. Simons resident, Parr was talking to her father shortly after the shooting when he discovered the damage.

"He said, 'Oh, my God, there's a hole in the window," Parr testified Wednesday.

Sometimes she and her mother played guitars and sang together in the front room where the buckshot entered the house, Parr said.

Nohilly was the seventh consecutive current or former Glynn County police officer to testify during these opening days of the trial. Numerous county police officers descended on Satilla Shores the day of the shooting.

However, nearly two and a half months passed before there were any arrests in the case. Because of the association with McMicheal, former Brunswick DA Jackie Johnson recused herself from the case. The cased passed through two more prosecutors before landing on the desk of the Cobb DA.

Despite gathering significant evidence and conducting multiple interviews with residents and witnesses, by March the county police department's investigation "was still open but not gaining much traction," Lowry said. "I think inactive was a fair summary."

It was not until the video of the shooting leaked online in early May 2020 that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation moved in and arrested the three defendants shortly afterward.

Defense attorneys have attempted to portray the Satilla Shores neighborhood as a community with a crime problem, its residents concerned with a rise in burglaries and thefts. So far in the trial, their scenario has not materialized.

The events that led to Arbery's killing centered around 220 Satilla Shores Drive, a house under construction with open doors and open garage bays. The structure's surveillance cameras caught Arbery entering the structure at least four times since October 2019.

Arbery can be seen walking around inside the structure with power tools and sawhorses in the background, but at no time is he seen taking anything or causing harm before leaving.

Greg McMichael did not know the owner of the house, Larry English of Douglas. However, English had shared the video with other Satilla Shores residents, including Diego Perez, who showed it to McMichael.

Perez resides several doors down from that construction house.

"I have no idea," McMichael answered when Nohilly asked who owns the home under construction at 220 Satilla Shores Drive. "Never met him, never met him."

It was revealed in testimony earlier this week that Travis McMichael said he spotted Arbery outside the structure shortly after dark while driving by several days earlier. Prosecutors played a tape of Travis McMichael's 911 call from that night.

Travis McMichael said Arbery hid behind a roadside Port-a-Potty and reached for his pants as if for a gun when McMicheal shined a light on him.

"Have you ever seen him before?" Nohilly asked.

"No, no — I never laid eyes on the guy," McMichael said. "Nobody in the neighborhood, or at least nobody that has seen the video, has a clue who he is."