In Trial Opening, Two Starkly Different Views of Ahmaud Arbery’s Death

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The proceedings of the 3 achromatic men accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery opened connected Friday with the prosecution arguing that Mr. Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, had travel “under attack,” portion defence attorneys said that their clients were justified successful suspecting Mr. Arbery of burglary, chasing him successful their trucks and trying to detain him until the constabulary arrived.

A lawyer for 1 defendant, Travis McMichael — the antheral who, astatine the extremity of the chase, fatally changeable Mr. Arbery astatine adjacent scope with a pump-action shotgun — besides argued that his lawsuit had acted successful self-defense. The lawyer, Robert G. Rubin, said that due to the fact that Mr. Arbery confronted and fought with Mr. McMichael astatine the extremity of the chase, Mr. McMichael had “no choice” but to occurrence connected Mr. Arbery, “because if this feline gets his gun, he’s dead, oregon his dad’s dead.”

Mr. Rubin portrayed Mr. McMichael arsenic a selfless helper, saying helium had felt a “duty” to support his neighborhood, which had suffered a bid of spot crimes earlier the day of Feb. 23, 2020, erstwhile the sidesplitting occurred.

The pb prosecutor, Linda Dunikoski, painted a starkly antithetic representation of Mr. Arbery’s pursuers. She said that Mr. McMichael and the different 2 defendants — Mr. McMichael’s father, Gregory McMichael, and a neighbor, William Bryan — had made a bid of reckless “driveway decisions” that time arsenic they decided to pursuit Mr. Arbery.

Ms. Dunikoski said the men had “assumed the worst” astir Mr. Arbery and were unjustified successful pursuing him due to the fact that they had nary cognition that helium had committed a crime.

“All 3 of these defendants did everything they did based connected assumptions,” said Ms. Dunikoski, a elder adjunct territory lawyer for Cobb County, Ga. “And they made decisions successful their driveways based connected those assumptions that took a young man’s life.”

The wide thrust of these arguments had been telegraphed by lawyers successful pretrial motions and interviews. On Friday, they were presented to a assemblage that had taken much than 2 weeks to select, and ended up composed of 1 Black idiosyncratic and 11 achromatic radical — a lopsided ratio that prompted immoderate activists, residents and relatives of Mr. Arbery to wonderment whether the proceedings would beryllium fair.

The archetypal witnesser called successful the proceedings gave a gruesome relationship of the country aft the killing. When William Duggan, a Glynn County constabulary officer, arrived successful the Satilla Shores vicinity that afternoon, helium said helium saw Mr. Arbery lying connected the crushed with radical milling about. Seated connected the crushed adjacent was Travis McMichael.

“I could spot helium was covered successful blood,” Mr. Duggan said. “There was humor each over, and I retrieve astatine immoderate constituent asking if helium was OK.”

Mr. McMichael replied, “No, I’m not OK,” Mr. Duggan testified. “I conscionable eff-ing killed somebody.”

A bully information of the opening statements focused connected the information that Mr. Arbery had been spotted wrong the partially built location connected the McMichaels’ artifact moments earlier the men chased him. Mr. Arbery had been captured connected surveillance cameras visiting the location 4 different times, but nary grounds has emerged that helium ever took anything.

Judge Timothy R. Walmsley of Superior Court has prohibited the assemblage from proceeding that Mr. Arbery, according to tribunal documents, was suffering from intelligence illness, and had reported auditory delusions that sometimes commanded him to “rob and steal.” The justice besides prohibited jurors from proceeding astir Mr. Arbery’s transgression record, saying it was “neither applicable oregon admissible.”

On the day of Feb. 23, different neighbour saw Mr. Arbery successful the location and called the police. But Ms. Dunikoski, the prosecutor, said the defendants themselves lacked immoderate “immediate knowledge” that Mr. Arbery had committed a transgression that day.

Asked by the constabulary aboriginal if Mr. Arbery had breached into the house, Gregory McMichael said helium did not know. “My volition was to halt this feline truthful that helium could beryllium arrested oregon beryllium identified astatine the precise least,” helium told the police, according to Ms. Dunikoski.

The prosecution’s assertion that the 3 men had nary “immediate knowledge” that a transgression was committed represents an effort to propulsion backmost against the defence lawyers’ assertion that the men were making a ineligible apprehension nether Georgia’s citizen’s apprehension law, which was mostly repealed by the authorities Legislature aft wide outcry implicit Mr. Arbery’s killing. That instrumentality antecedently stated that a backstage idiosyncratic whitethorn apprehension idiosyncratic “if the discourtesy is committed successful his beingness oregon wrong his contiguous knowledge.”

Ms. Dunikoski described astatine magnitude however the 3 men chased Mr. Arbery for 5 minutes arsenic helium ran done their neighborhood, trying to evade them — the McMichaels successful 1 pickup motortruck and Mr. Bryan successful another.

At immoderate constituent during the pursuit, she said, Gregory McMichael, who was equipped with a handgun, said to Mr. Arbery, “Stop oregon I’ll stroke your fucking caput off.”

Understand the Killing of Ahmaud Arbery

She said that Mr. Bryan, who had joined the pursuit aboriginal than the McMichaels, tried to deed Mr. Arbery 4 times with his pickup truck, astatine 1 constituent forcing him into a ditch.

Ms. Dunikoski stressed that Mr. Arbery was unarmed. And she played the video that Mr. Bryan recorded connected his cellphone, showing the moments erstwhile the 2 trucks had pinned Mr. Arbery in. She said that Gregory McMichael aboriginal contended that Mr. Arbery had been “trapped similar a rat.”

The video shows Travis McMichael pointing the shotgun astatine Mr. Arbery arsenic helium ran toward the McMichaels’ truck. The 2 men look to conscionable head-on successful beforehand of the vehicle.

“What did McMichael bash with that shotgun?” Ms. Dunikoski said. “He stepped astir that unfastened doorway and moved toward Mr. Arbery.”

Ms. Dunikowski said that successful interviews with the police, Travis McMichael said that Mr. Arbery attacked him and that helium was acting successful self-defense.

But she besides said that erstwhile the constabulary asked him if Mr. Arbery grabbed his shotgun, Mr. McMichael said, “I privation to accidental helium did, but I honestly cannot remember.”

Mr. Rubin, the lawyer for Travis McMichael, spent the archetypal portion of his connection focusing connected the break-ins and spot crimes successful Satilla Shores, wherever Mr. McMichael was surviving successful his parents’ house. It was a vicinity “on edge,” Mr. Rubin said.

In immoderate of the instances successful which Mr. Arbery was captured connected video wrong the partially built house, its owner, Larry English, had called the police, but Mr. Arbery had vanished earlier they arrived. Mr. English, Mr. Rubin said, had been telling neighbors that a suspicious idiosyncratic had been visiting the location and that items had been taken from a vessel helium sometimes kept connected the property.

On the time of the confrontation and the killing, Mr. Rubin said, Mr. McMichael had probable origin to presume that a burglary had occurred — frankincense giving him the close to marque a citizen’s arrest. And, helium said, Mr. McMichael had encountered Mr. Arbery himself 12 days earlier the shooting and had crushed to fishy that helium mightiness beryllium armed.

After the shooting, Mr. Rubin said, Mr. McMichael was “distraught” and “upset.”

“There’s nary glee successful having done what helium conscionable did. It’s awful,” helium said.