True Crime Vault: Nowhere to Run: The Ahmaud Arbery Story

Speaker 1 Venmo Stash, a tiger in one hand, and ordering a ride in the other means you're stacking cash back. With Venmo Stash, get up to 5% cash back when you pick a bundle of your favorite brands.

Speaker 1 Earn more cash when you do more with stash. Venmo Stash Terms excludes supply.
Match $100 cash back per month. C terms at Vimmo.me slash stash terms.

Speaker 4 Step into the 2020 True Crime Vault where you'll hear our most gripping stories.

Speaker 4 Did that make any sense to you? That your son would be committing a burglary?

Speaker 7 Our mom wasn't burglarizing anything. Ah mom was just running.
I've been told lies.

Speaker 4 And now the verdict is in.

Speaker 8 I understand you have reached a verdict.

Speaker 9 The murder of Ahmad Arbery shocked the conscience of the nation.

Speaker 11 No, Pete!

Speaker 4 But there's so much more to this story that you never heard before.

Speaker 13 Greg McMichael and Travis McMichael chased this young man in the street

Speaker 13 and hunted him down

Speaker 13 and shot him.

Speaker 13 You know, I was chief investigator with the DA's office.

Speaker 12 I've got 93 years, so.

Speaker 15 As soon as he says that, they begin to take everything that he says at face value.

Speaker 17 Y'all don't put any cups on you. No, no, no, no.

Speaker 18 The video changed everything.

Speaker 4 Just 36 seconds of grainy video.

Speaker 19 You're now dealing with the whole world watching. I just nothing else I can do.

Speaker 20 This doesn't look good.

Speaker 12 I mean, it's shocking.

Speaker 21 Anyone who saw that video, their reaction was, good God, this is a lynching.

Speaker 4 Did you think that you would be able to get justice as a black woman in a small Georgia town?

Speaker 7 I promised him that I would find out what happened.

Speaker 7 Ahma would go out running, jogging every day.

Speaker 23 He just loved running past the oak trees and the pine trees.

Speaker 10 He liked it because it was peaceful.

Speaker 24 He was at home when he ran.

Speaker 23 He just loved smelling the sea salt as he ran.

Speaker 7 If it wasn't drenching in rain, Ahma would be running.

Speaker 23 Ahmaud Arbre was Wanda Cooper-Jones and Marcus Arbrey Sr.'s third child. They had an older son, Marcus Jr.,

Speaker 27 and they also had a daughter, Jasmine.

Speaker 7 Ahmaud was the baby. I had Ahmaud on Mother's Day.
I knew Ahma would be the last one, though I cherished Ahmaud.

Speaker 4 And he was your Mother's Day gift?

Speaker 25 Yes.

Speaker 7 We shared a very special bond. A mom was the kid that would come in and give me a kiss on the cheek or just come in and give me a hug around the neck.

Speaker 22 And a day passed by, he didn't tell you that he loved you. And he didn't just tell you that, he showed that.

Speaker 30 He was a funny guy.

Speaker 31 I always wanted to keep people laughing. We all be joked out and he gonna be right in the center of it, making us laugh.

Speaker 3 Right or wrong, if you his family, he gonna stick with you beside you. He was a great kid.

Speaker 7 When he knew I was having a bad day, he would come in and say something that he thought was funny to get me to smile. His goal was to make me happy, and he did that.

Speaker 7 We don't take any time for granted at this point.

Speaker 33 The last time we saw him.

Speaker 4 Life was pretty tough for Wanda. She was a primary caregiver, raising three children and often working two jobs.

Speaker 34 I constantly asked her, was being a mom to three and raising it on your own was at Tyron. She would tell me all the time that was one of the best roles she had ever played.

Speaker 4 The family lived in Brunswick, a small town in the southeast corner of Georgia.

Speaker 23 Brunswick is an idyllic town if you want to live near water and off the coast.

Speaker 31 It's very tropical. You got three islands that are nearby.

Speaker 23 There's only a little more than 16,000 people in Brunswick.

Speaker 36 So it is a small southern town.

Speaker 37 One, two, three, up!

Speaker 4 Ahmad wasn't just a casual runner. He was a natural-born athlete.
He loved sports, basketball, boxing.

Speaker 38 But I think Ahmad's particular love of football was something that was extraordinary.

Speaker 7 Ahmad started playing football when he was about five.

Speaker 31 It's the South, so sports in the South is crazy.

Speaker 4 Just listen to the energy at the football stadium where Ahmad once played.

Speaker 3 You go to a high school game right now, the whole city come out, you know, football is very important down here.

Speaker 3 There's nothing like it.

Speaker 4 At Brunswick High, Ahmad was known as a hard hitter and a mighty linebacker.

Speaker 22 Once they put him in the game, his heart overtook it. It really scared me because he wasn't that big, but when I seen him play, I see, wow, his heart bigger inside.

Speaker 38 a lot of young people who have less opportunities see sports as a way to achieve not only material success but also I think to have a sense of identity and the adoration of the people that you grew up with It's a path for something different and peace.

Speaker 3 And it's a way to let yourself be free.

Speaker 21 He was on a mission.

Speaker 11 He knew what he wanted out of life.

Speaker 38 He wanted to buy a plot of land and build houses with him and his best friends so they could all live close together and raise their families together.

Speaker 4 As kids, Ahmaud and his older brother Marcus Jr. would sometimes fantasize about what life would be like outside of Brunswick.

Speaker 38 Every day we dream about playing in the NFL.

Speaker 23 They wanted one of them to sign a big, huge, multi-million dollar NFL contract.

Speaker 38 And one of us is gonna have to go to the NFL. One of us is gonna make mama rich.

Speaker 23 And they were gonna buy Wanda a nice big house.

Speaker 4 This wasn't exactly a far-fetched dream. Three former players from the Brunswick Pirates actually went on to play for the NFL, including Ahmad's cousin, Tracy Walker, who plays for the Detroit Lions.

Speaker 12 Got accepted by Tracy Walker.

Speaker 4 And Darius Slay III, who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Speaker 4 While Darius and Tracy went on to play football and ultimately to the NFL, it didn't happen for Ahmad.

Speaker 38 When he finished high school, he didn't have any college football offers.

Speaker 23 He was a small linebacker and the colleges just didn't want someone that size playing that position.

Speaker 22 I told him, you young,

Speaker 22 you still got a chance to do anything in this world you want.

Speaker 4 After graduation, Ahmad moved out and went to technical college. He was hoping to become an electrician.

Speaker 38 Once the dream of football faded, it was harder to focus on school. So he came home and he started working and I think he was really trying to figure out what else he was going to do with his life.

Speaker 4 So he eventually left college and came back home to live with your mom. What didn't he go back?

Speaker 34 A change of thought maybe.

Speaker 34 Maybe this is not what I want to do. And he started working and making a living for himself.
I guess he got used to making money and tired of being a broke college student.

Speaker 4 Was he sort of the man of the house in some ways?

Speaker 7 He was. Ahma had helped me in so many ways, not for us financially, but emotionally as well.
Ahma didn't realize how much I was actually depending on him at that point.

Speaker 46 I met him at my first job. It was at McDonald's.
He had like this smooth skin, this nice mask.

Speaker 33 We complimented each other.

Speaker 38 He loved his girlfriend and he was really shy when he first met her.

Speaker 42 We literally just clicked.

Speaker 46 He played sports, I played sports. He would come to my house, we're working out together, we're eating together, we're looking at movies together.
My friends could not catch me at that point.

Speaker 46 Like, they knew when I was with Mai, there was just no way she needs to start going anywhere at that point.

Speaker 38 Later into the relationship, he loved her so much that he would record their phone calls just so he could listen to her voice.

Speaker 4 Wanda became concerned after her son dropped out of college and came back home. There were changes in his behavior.
He's now at home. Was he struggling with that decision and where he was in his life?

Speaker 7 Returning home at that age after being away, I think it did take a toll of him.

Speaker 38 When Ahmad came home and went to a high school basketball game, he had a firearm on him. He was arrested.

Speaker 4 After Ahmad was caught with that gun, he was put on probation and later he was arrested a second time for shoplifting.

Speaker 34 My brother was no angel, but he was my angel.

Speaker 38 He'd make mistakes like everyone does and I think was trying to get his life back on track. He was not sent to jail.
Maude's crimes were not violent crimes.

Speaker 4 Wanda noticed that her youngest son didn't seem to be himself.

Speaker 7 I was concerned because he had lost his motivation.

Speaker 7 He wasn't talking as much. I just had concerns as a mother.
And my job as mom was to stick beside him.

Speaker 4 Did you lose faith in him?

Speaker 7 No, ma'am. My mom was the baby.
Our mom was still my son. My mom still was a brother.

Speaker 7 No,

Speaker 7 never.

Speaker 7 My cell phone rang. When I heard Glenn County Police Department, I knew it was something wrong.

Speaker 25 How wrong it was, I didn't know.

Speaker 7 I had traveled to Dallas, where it's been training. And then when I left Ahmad, I went to his room.
I told Ahmad I was leaving. I said, I'll be back in a couple of days.
And I said, I love you.

Speaker 7 And his last words to me was, I love you.

Speaker 4 Four days later, when she's on her way home from Texas, Wanda gets a phone call from the local police.

Speaker 7 He said Ahmad was committing a burglary. He was confronted, and in that confrontation, there was a struggle over the firearm, and Ahmad was killed.

Speaker 4 Did that make any sense to you? That your son would be committing a burglary?

Speaker 7 No, ma'am.

Speaker 7 No sense at all.

Speaker 15 She was unwilling to... accept that information because she knew that what she was being told was not the character of her son.

Speaker 34 That's not him. I knew that wasn't him.

Speaker 4 So nobody was satisfied with this idea that he was shot and killed during a burglary.

Speaker 6 No.

Speaker 4 My brother is one of the trustworthiest people that I know.

Speaker 45 I didn't believe it.

Speaker 34 I remember picking out a casket for my little brother.

Speaker 45 What he would wear,

Speaker 34 what would be in his obituary.

Speaker 34 Things like that I never thought I would do at such a young age.

Speaker 7 As a young mom, I used to say I couldn't, I didn't imagine life without my children.

Speaker 12 And now that that day had came,

Speaker 7 it was one of the hardest days of my life.

Speaker 7 I really like this waist because it has his name imported on it.

Speaker 4 You said something to your son at the funeral.

Speaker 7 I promised him that I would find out what happened.

Speaker 7 They had told me that he had burglarized something,

Speaker 7 and I know that he hadn't did that.

Speaker 7 And Ahmad knew the type of mom I was. I was going to find out what happened.
He knew that.

Speaker 42 The day that we laid Ahmad to rest, those were her last words to him.

Speaker 7 We're going to find out what happened, or we're going to get justice.

Speaker 34 She said it it over and over again.

Speaker 12 She's going to find out what happened.

Speaker 34 She's going to find out what happened.

Speaker 12 And she is.

Speaker 7 We laid him to rest on that Saturday.

Speaker 7 And that Monday morning, when I woke up, I said, now it's time. It's time to find answers.

Speaker 4 Ahmaud died in a quiet subdivision of Brunswick called Satilla Shores.

Speaker 4 According to the Glenn County Police Report, 34-year-old Travis McMichael and his father Gregory had seen a mod running through their neighborhood.

Speaker 4 So they began chasing him in their white pickup truck.

Speaker 7 They saw Ahmaud running, they grabbed the guns, and they ran behind him.

Speaker 9 They admitted to targeting her son because he looked suspicious.

Speaker 4 What are you now beginning to think?

Speaker 7 That I've been told

Speaker 7 lies.

Speaker 7 What I was told by a detective was all wrong. Police report was totally different.

Speaker 7 Our mom wasn't burglarizing anything. Our ma was just running.

Speaker 13 And Greg McMichael and Travis McMichael chased this young man in the street

Speaker 13 and hunted him down

Speaker 13 and shot him.

Speaker 4 In the Glen County Police Report, Wanda learns more about the details of that day.

Speaker 9 Travis McMichael shot Ahmaud Arbery three times at close range with a shotgun.

Speaker 49 6-7 around.

Speaker 49 Yes.

Speaker 49 All right, guys, everybody's got their weapons up, correct?

Speaker 9 While Ahmad Arbery lay dying in the streets

Speaker 6 with Travis McMichael literally covered in Ahmad Arbery's blood. Black male, middle of the roadway, looked like about mid-20s.

Speaker 9 Law enforcement began their investigation.

Speaker 21 When police arrived on the scene inside Sato's shores that day, Graham Michael was almost animated in describing what had happened.

Speaker 50 We see him come around the corner. He's going down here.
We pull up beside him.

Speaker 12 Hey, stop, stop. We want to talk to you.

Speaker 51 And he just keeps on riding.

Speaker 21 Travis and Michael, who had fired the fatal shots, was much more subdued. He was sitting on the curb.

Speaker 49 Just breathing.

Speaker 21 Ahmaud's body was less than 10 feet away.

Speaker 20 And then that's my father. He was with me when it's on vein.

Speaker 21 Grayman Michael established the narrative that he said Ahmad attacked his son and Travis had acted in self-defense.

Speaker 21 And Grayman Michael tells the officers that, you know, I would have shot him myself if I had to.

Speaker 30 Honestly, if I could have got a shot at the guy, I shot him myself.

Speaker 54 When the police arrive, Gregory McMichael talks about his long history in law enforcement.

Speaker 30 So I grabbed my first

Speaker 17 magnum.

Speaker 30 Throw a glint county Penny issue by the way.

Speaker 12 When I was stopping

Speaker 4 that he's just basically one of them.

Speaker 30 And I was chief investigator with the DA's officer

Speaker 30 so I know what you got to do. I know everything, you know.

Speaker 21 Gregman Michael was formerly a police officer and then he went to work for the district attorney's office.

Speaker 15 As soon as he says that

Speaker 15 they drop their guard and begin to give him professional courtesy. They don't look at him as someone who's perpetrated possibly a crime.

Speaker 15 They begin to look at him as a colleague and they begin to take everything that he says at face value.

Speaker 30 It was just a damn melee.

Speaker 21 They accepted everything he had to say as gospel.

Speaker 30 What are they doing with my son over there?

Speaker 17 I don't know, sir.

Speaker 53 After the shooting occurs, Gregory McMichael calls his former boss, Jackie Johnson.

Speaker 21 Jackie Johnson was the longtime district attorney down in Brunswick.

Speaker 32 Jackie, this is Greg.

Speaker 17 Could you call me as soon as you possibly can?

Speaker 32 My son and I have been involved in a shooting, and I need some advice right away.

Speaker 49 If you can please call me as soon as you possibly can.

Speaker 56 Thank you.

Speaker 5 Bye. Greg McMichael calls his former boss, District Attorney Jackie Johnson, saying, I've been involved in the shooting.
I need some advice. Please call me.

Speaker 5 We don't know for sure if they ever actually connected and talked. There's nothing in the records that they actually talked in person.

Speaker 9 Jackie Johnson told law enforcement officers that day that they should not arrest Travis McMichael for the murder of Vermont Arbery.

Speaker 15 And so the process was influenced by persons that had relationships with the McMichaels.

Speaker 5 The McMichaels were brought down to the police station, interviewed, and released.

Speaker 21 There were no arrests. It was as if there had been a traffic accident.

Speaker 21 And after questioning, Gray McMichael and Travis McMichael went home.

Speaker 21 This is a story about power, really, in a small Georgia town, but it's who you knew and who you didn't know.

Speaker 4 Did you think that you would be able to get justice as a black woman in a small Georgia town?

Speaker 7 I knew the odds of getting justice for Ahmad was not on my side. I knew that.
Ahmad was killed on a sunny Sunday afternoon,

Speaker 7 and no one went to jail.

Speaker 7 I went to Brunswick. I got visited where Ahmad fell.

Speaker 7 I would go there and sit there

Speaker 7 just to have that connection on where he took his last breath.

Speaker 7 I thought Ahmad was just running in my neighborhood. I had no idea that he had ventured out into a neighborhood across to the highway.

Speaker 4 There's a highway that cuts through Brunswick that takes vacationers off to pretty beaches.

Speaker 38 Interstate 17 works is a kind of dividing line between Brunswick and Satilla Shores.

Speaker 38 The people who live on the Satilla Shores side are more affluent.

Speaker 24 They have better schools, better housing.

Speaker 38 The people that live on Ahmad's side of Interstate 17 are for the most part impoverished.

Speaker 38 And so you can imagine what it feels like to be separated from another way of life and not by a lot of distance.

Speaker 38 And I think that has something to do with why Ahmad would run on the other side of Interstate 17, be able to see another way of life, imagine it for himself.

Speaker 41 Wanted to live in a neighborhood with mixed nationalities,

Speaker 42 and she said that he was safe until he crossed the road into the white neighborhood.

Speaker 4 Was there a racial divide? Was he running in the white section of town? He was.

Speaker 7 If I would have known, I would have asked him to stop because I knew it wasn't safe.

Speaker 7 I've been a resident of Glenn County since I was like 15, so I know that that stuff is there.

Speaker 4 When you say that stuff is there, what do you mean?

Speaker 7 The prejudice,

Speaker 7 the racism.

Speaker 13 In order to get to Satilla Shores from his neighborhood, Ahmad had to run my residences that had Confederate flags flying out front.

Speaker 59 I hate to say it, but

Speaker 59 racial profiling does happen here.

Speaker 29 And I've experienced it myself.

Speaker 20 And I'm a pastor.

Speaker 59 It's unfortunate, but it does happen.

Speaker 21 A lot of people classified this case as Lamont Arbery was guilty of one thing, running while black.

Speaker 60 T'was a cold winter's night and without any heat. I wore bomba socks so they'd warm up my feet.
Yay, my feet cried. These socks are the best.
So cushy and warm, I can finally rest.

Speaker 60 But don't rest, I said. There's more, if you please.
Bombus also makes underwear, slippers, and tees. And for each thing you purchase, they donate one new to someone who needs it so they're cozy too.

Speaker 60 Everybody deserves to feel good all the time. So gift bombas this season.
That's the end of this rhyme. Go to bombus.com/slash audio and use code audio for 20% off your first purchase.

Speaker 61 Audiences and top critics are celebrating. Rental Family is the perfect feel-good movie of the year.

Speaker 62 What do you need me for?

Speaker 61 We need a talking white guy. Academy Award winner Brendan Fraser delivers a masterful performance.

Speaker 63 This girl needs a father.

Speaker 62 I hate you.

Speaker 55 She hates me.

Speaker 61 It's worth being apparent. Yes.
In this tender and funny film about the importance of connection.

Speaker 62 This is amazing. It's cool, but it's fake.

Speaker 61 Sometimes it's okay to pretend. Rental Family, only in theaters Friday.
Ready to PG13. May be inappropriate for children under 13.

Speaker 21 This is a story about power, really.

Speaker 21 I'm in a small Georgia town. That's who you knew and who you didn't know.
And Ahmaud Arbery's mother had no connections, didn't know anybody.

Speaker 7 I knew that I had to do something because I was being ignored. Days and weeks had passed, and these people were still free.

Speaker 59 To have to deal with your son being murdered, and then nobody's arrested, no justice.

Speaker 9 They absolutely underestimated Wanda Cooper-Jones.

Speaker 21 She was dogged in her pursuit of the truth in this case.

Speaker 9 They thought that one single black woman was not going to be as disruptive as she ultimately proved to be.

Speaker 21 There was clearly some conflicts right away.

Speaker 13 Jackie Johnson immediately recognized she had a problem because Greg McMichael had worked for her.

Speaker 64 Glenn County District Attorney Jackie Johnson recused herself after the shooting happened. A district attorney from a neighboring area, George Barnhill, picks up the case.

Speaker 5 George Barnhill is another longtime district attorney in south of Georgia.

Speaker 7 Basically, I was hoping that the DA would call me and tell me that he had indictments for arrest. So that was my prayer.

Speaker 15 At the same time, the country was finding out about this COVID outbreak. And so you had a local tragedy taking place, but then you had a national, global tragedy that was taking place.

Speaker 15 And I think it was pushed aside.

Speaker 21 So she starts digging into this herself by Googling. She didn't have a lawyer, she didn't have investigators, she went out, she googled.

Speaker 7 So I turned into an investigator.

Speaker 4 Wanda says she found a connection between Greg McMichael and George Barnhill on social media.

Speaker 7 I went to social media and found Gregory McMichaels and his friends named George Barnhill.

Speaker 4 The district attorney?

Speaker 49 Yes.

Speaker 7 So then when I went to Mr. Barnhill's page, I saw he had a son.

Speaker 21 She finds out that George Barnhill's son works for the DA in Glenn County where Raymond Michael had worked all those years.

Speaker 15 The new DA had personal connections and ties with both Shackie Johnson and the McMichaels himself.

Speaker 42 She told me that she didn't think it was right for the case to go to him.

Speaker 65 And she was on the phone calling the Attorney General. She was calling anybody who would listen.

Speaker 7 Every morning, I wake up and make a phone call, and no one would return my phone calls.

Speaker 59 I couldn't imagine what she felt like as a mother and having door after door slam in your face, but she kept on pursuing, she kept on digging.

Speaker 4 Wanda's tireless efforts eventually yielded results.

Speaker 21 George Barnhill would recuse himself from the case because of Wanda Cooper-Jones beating the drum that he had something's not right here.

Speaker 7 So that was like a small victory.

Speaker 4 In recusing himself, D.A. Barnhill denied any allegations of bias.

Speaker 21 But he made sure before he left to write a letter to the Clinton County Police saying, This is self-defense. There's no criminal charges warranted.

Speaker 21 Nothing to see here is basically the tenor of the letter.

Speaker 13 And so he created the foundation of the argument that they did nothing wrong.

Speaker 4 In his letter, D.A. Barnhill writes, it's our conclusion that there's insufficient probable cause to issue arrest warrants at this time.

Speaker 4 It's shocking for a prosecutor to make that statement.

Speaker 21 Really what Wanda had said, that this was being swept under the rug, it was laid bare in that letter.

Speaker 13 It was a get out of jail free card for the McMichaels.

Speaker 21 The case is then handed over to another district attorney, Tom Durden.

Speaker 4 Tom Durden, the third DA in the case, was considering convening a grand jury. But because of the pandemic, the courts in Georgia were closed.
How frustrating was it for the family?

Speaker 34 It seems like everyone is going on with their life.

Speaker 34 But we're still stuck here and we're screaming at the top of our lungs, and nobody's listening to what happened.

Speaker 4 It had been two months since her son's death, and out of the blue, a New York Times reporter reaches out to Wanda about telling Ahmad's story.

Speaker 7 I told him what I was up against, and he said, I can help.

Speaker 7 And Ms. Roberts, no one had ever told me that.

Speaker 4 It was the first time the case got attention in the national media.

Speaker 59 Her pursuit of justice proved it was more to the story.

Speaker 4 What came a few weeks later would shock the nation. Just 36 seconds of grainy video.

Speaker 4 Suddenly the world knows the name Ahmaud Arbery.

Speaker 7 That was really where the case took a big turn.

Speaker 52 It was sickening.

Speaker 59 I can't say say this any more clearly. It was like he was treated like an animal, gunned down.

Speaker 47 This morning, the race to find a potential COVID-19.

Speaker 67 The total number of COVID cases in the U.S.

Speaker 16 now around 1.2 million.

Speaker 18 The pandemic was full-blown, and we were talking about shutdown.

Speaker 54 Dozens of plants closed across the country, thousands of workers sick.

Speaker 18 And courts were closed. So all of that made it difficult for this case to break through.

Speaker 18 And that is, of course, until the video came out.

Speaker 20 Breaking overnight.

Speaker 18 The video changed everything.

Speaker 52 Showing this 25-year-old unarmed.

Speaker 4 It was the first week of May in 2020, and WGIG, a Brunswick radio station, posts on its Twitter account a video of Ahmaud Arbrey being chased through the streets of Satilla Shores.

Speaker 2 It was like a dream, a nightmare.

Speaker 59 I couldn't believe that this was happening in our city.

Speaker 4 Just 36 seconds of grainy video showing the last moments of Ahmaud Arbery's life.

Speaker 34 I still remember today, our lawyer, he called and told us to give a break of social media today.

Speaker 4 He didn't want you to see this.

Speaker 42 He didn't want us to see the video.

Speaker 59 My daughter shit called me and cried.

Speaker 5 It tore her apart. It tore my whole family apart.

Speaker 2 I never seen nothing like this before.

Speaker 5 And when I seen my kid running for his poor dear life

Speaker 11 and I wasn't there to help him,

Speaker 2 that thing really told me down.

Speaker 4 Did you watch the video?

Speaker 7 I saw the last

Speaker 7 couple of seconds.

Speaker 7 I can see Ahmad,

Speaker 7 and he had turned to run away.

Speaker 7 And what I carry

Speaker 7 is seeing him

Speaker 7 as he's falling,

Speaker 11 and it breaks my heart

Speaker 15 when the michaels perpetrated all of this they chased the young man they put him in a situation where he feared for his life and as a result of fearing for his life he tried to defend his life and then they shot him dead

Speaker 21 Anyone who saw that video, their reaction was, good God, this is a lynching.

Speaker 40 There's growing outrage over chilling videos showing the deadly shit.

Speaker 52 25-year-old unarmed black man who was chased by two white men and fatally shot.

Speaker 16 No arrests have been made.

Speaker 29 The community is demanding answers.

Speaker 12 No peace!

Speaker 12 No peace!

Speaker 59 It was a stressful time, and it could have gone a lot of ways. I saw the city really come together like I never seen before.

Speaker 59 Of course, there was a crisis, but nevertheless, we came together.

Speaker 12 Everybody's out about justice, but it really is just us.

Speaker 12 We're tired of it.

Speaker 15 I think most of our citizens of the white community were unaware that this level of injustice was still being carried out.

Speaker 15 And their support to get justice was refreshing.

Speaker 5 Once the cell phone video became public, it was just a matter of a day or two before Georgia's governor, Brian Kemp, asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to take over this case.

Speaker 5 Within 36 hours,

Speaker 5 GBI agents were at the McMichaels' house putting handcuffs on Greg and Travis.

Speaker 47 Father and son, caught on camera in that fatal incident, have now been arrested and charged with murder.

Speaker 7 My older son Marcus called. He said, Mama,

Speaker 7 they got him. They got the McMichaels.

Speaker 4 74 days after he was shot and killed, the McMichaels are arrested.

Speaker 4 What did that feel like for you after working so hard?

Speaker 7 It was unbelievable.

Speaker 7 I knew that

Speaker 12 God had heard my prayers.

Speaker 12 The murderer of Ahmad Aubrey was arrested.

Speaker 6 We will not rest until they are convicted and behind bars.

Speaker 4 The Georgia Attorney General replaced the third DA at his own request.

Speaker 52 A new prosecutor has been assigned to the case of Ahmaud Aubrey.

Speaker 19 It was early May. I was appointed as the special prosecutor in the case of Ahmaud Aubrey's murder, being the fourth prosecutor to be involved.

Speaker 19 And that family is reeling and you feel the emotion of what you are tasked with doing.

Speaker 19 You're now dealing with the whole world watching.

Speaker 18 After the video was released, there was this examination as to how did all these months pass by

Speaker 18 and there was no progress in the investigation into this case.

Speaker 54 It's important to note that law enforcement has had the video of the shooting from day one.

Speaker 21 It was hard to believe

Speaker 21 that that video could be seen and

Speaker 21 police not acting on it. The people who were making the decision on whether or not to prosecute New York Michaels not acting on it.

Speaker 15 It was just hard for me to believe that we had elected and paid officials that had the knowledge of this video and still found a way not to do their jobs.

Speaker 13 It is an amazing thing that we can all as human beings look at the same video and see something so different.

Speaker 5 The sole reason it became public is because the McMichaels and their supporters thought it would prove their case. That they thought it would prove that this was self-defense.

Speaker 18 The McMichaels wanted the video released.

Speaker 29 They saw it as exonerating.

Speaker 35 They felt that it helped their case.

Speaker 28 When you see the video, you consider it a video of a murder, perhaps.

Speaker 28 When some people see the video, they see it as two men trying to effectuate an arrest and the arrestee resisting arrest, trying to then kill the arrestors

Speaker 28 and self-defense at hand.

Speaker 21 Grab and Michael thought it cleared him. It thought it told his story.
I mean obviously that's not how the rest of the country saw it.

Speaker 4 Now everybody wants to know who shot that video.

Speaker 7 One of the neighbors saw a pickup truck with a man in it, so I know that it was a third party. I just didn't know what part he played in it.

Speaker 21 A lot of times these videos are shot by witnesses or someone who's not involved in the case. This case was not involved.

Speaker 21 It was shot by one of the eventual defendants.

Speaker 21 As we celebrate the arrest, justice still is not.

Speaker 4 Three days after the release of that video of Travis McMichael killing Ahmad Arbrey, Hundreds of people gathered peacefully in Brunswick to honor Ahmad on what would have been his 26th birthday.

Speaker 20 I have a black son, too, and I'm afraid for him every day walking out in these streets.

Speaker 7 I attended a lot of rallies in the South Georgia area. Every county that we visited, moms would come to me and say, I lost my child.

Speaker 7 The police killed my child.

Speaker 4 Wanda Cooper-Jones was convinced that somebody else might have been involved in her son's death.

Speaker 9 She had no problem with saying, Well, look, two arrests are nice, but we want to make sure that everyone involved in my son's murder and pay for it.

Speaker 4 Almost a week after that video came out, a man named William Roddy Bryan speaks to ABC News.

Speaker 1 I've never experienced anything like that before.

Speaker 74 Whoever the young man was, that I did not know.

Speaker 14 I don't really know what else to say other than it was unsettling.

Speaker 9 Ryan's attorney, Mr. Goff, began to offer up his client as a witness to this terrible incident.

Speaker 58 My client was trying to take a video of what was going on.

Speaker 35 I don't think there was any question

Speaker 58 that Roddy was one of the good guys.

Speaker 21 His lawyer kind of goes on the offensive and says, Roddy's a victim here. In some ways, he just shot a video.
He's just a bystander.

Speaker 76 Roddy Bryan sees a young man running down the street that he doesn't know.

Speaker 73 Okay?

Speaker 58 And he's not running to anything.

Speaker 76 He's running from something.

Speaker 73 Okay?

Speaker 75 And then a white pickup truck that he recognizes from the neighborhood comes by.

Speaker 75 And he goes in his house.

Speaker 76 He gets his keys.

Speaker 10 He has his cell phone.

Speaker 76 And he gets in his truck.

Speaker 76 Somewhere after he pulls out, he starts recording.

Speaker 14 I pray for the family.

Speaker 69 I'm sorry for you lost.

Speaker 58 I'm not proud that I shot the video, but maybe it helps in the end.

Speaker 9 He apologized for the pain that Wanda was experiencing.

Speaker 11 It was

Speaker 9 really one of the more mystifying aspects of the case.

Speaker 4 Two weeks after Bryan spoke to ABC News, he was interviewed by the GBI, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Speaker 71 The man who captured that video, now arrested. William William Roddy Bryant has been arrested by Georgia authorities on charges including felony murder.

Speaker 19 We had Roddy Bryant arrested because we believe that he was just as culpable as the McMichaels in the murder of Ahmaud Aubrey.

Speaker 19 Now, this was during COVID, so we were able to follow CDC guidelines to impanel a grand jury after which all three of the current defendants were indicted.

Speaker 9 The murder of Ahmad Aubrey shocked the conscience of the nation.

Speaker 24 And then George Floyd was killed.

Speaker 12 No justice! LP!

Speaker 43 It's really the first global anti-racist movement that we'd ever seen. The protests were multi-generational, they were multiracial, but to do so in the middle of a pandemic.

Speaker 43 Millions and millions of mass people all over the planet.

Speaker 43 The back-to-back murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd really put on display the extent to which black lives do not have value.

Speaker 48 Greg certainly didn't want Ahmaud Arbery to get hurt or killed.

Speaker 49 Is Greg McMichael a racist?

Speaker 77 What's your definition of racist?

Speaker 13 There was a perspective in that neighborhood that they were being menaced by somebody.

Speaker 4 And now there's a second video that might show that and change everything.

Speaker 78 There's somebody back over there on the property again tonight.

Speaker 17 It's a black male. Looks like he's up to no good.

Speaker 67 It started with a phone call in the early hours of the morning.

Speaker 32 Hi, 111. What is the address to your emergency?

Speaker 67 A terrified woman tells the operator she's been kidnapped assaulted and that she's trapped in a room with her attacker he's fallen asleep so she quietly and ever so carefully finds his phone and calls for help is there any way you can get out of the building i don't know without thinking coming out

Speaker 67 This 911 call began an investigation that would turn the town of Ashland into a crime scene.

Speaker 55 We've got something big going on here.

Speaker 63 The first thing that hit my mind is a monster.

Speaker 67 A new series from ABC Audio and 2020, The Hand in the Window. Out now, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Speaker 67 Two rings surrounded by a steel cage.

Speaker 78 Stream Survivor Series War Games, November 29th at 7 Eastern on the ESPN app.

Speaker 4 A lot of people cannot understand how did a man lose his life when there was no evidence of a serious crime being committed.

Speaker 48 That's the wrong question. It's inaccurate.

Speaker 4 What's the right question?

Speaker 4 What did the jury believe?

Speaker 8 I understand you have reached a verdict as to each defendant.

Speaker 41 If you see a white man running, you think, well, there's a jogger.

Speaker 24 If you see a black man running, I think you call into question why he's running.

Speaker 12 He was just wandering around under the carport and it looks like he's nothing that's good.

Speaker 28 If you didn't have his belief that he was actually committing verbalies, then all you would have is there's a black man running.

Speaker 12 We pull up the side, hey, stop, stop, we want to talk to you.

Speaker 51 And he just keeps on running.

Speaker 59 I can't say this any more clearly. It was like he was treated like an animal, gunned down.

Speaker 29 This case is not about racism or racist motives.

Speaker 53 This is just a neighborhood and some people trying to do the best they could to stop the crime in the neighborhood.

Speaker 4 When you hear that they say that race has no bearing on this case, what is your reaction?

Speaker 34 There's three men chasing a black young man. He's unarmed.
They have weapons. They have a truck.
What else could it be?

Speaker 4 The three men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbrey were in custody.

Speaker 80 At this point, we call Richard Dial from the Georgia Bureau of Investigations to the witness stand.

Speaker 80 From the beta, you can tell that Mr.

Speaker 16 Aubrey comes out of the wedding.

Speaker 4 GBI investigator Richard Dial testifies at a June 4th preliminary hearing, laying out with video and other evidence what really may have happened on February 23rd, 2020.

Speaker 4 Ahmaud set out from his home that sunny Sunday and about two miles later crossed over into the Satilla Shores neighborhood.

Speaker 54 When you look at the street layout of Satilla Shores, it's a bunch of winding streets like most subdivisions are.

Speaker 4 The first time we see Ahmaud Arbery in Satilla Shores is from a porch camera. The timing on that porch camera is off by about an hour and five minutes.

Speaker 4 At 1.04 p.m., he enters a home that's under construction.

Speaker 5 Ahmaud Arbery stops and walks in this house. Surveillance video shows him just walking around, looking.

Speaker 21 That construction site sort of became ground zero of all this.

Speaker 4 At 1.08 p.m., a neighbor is captured on that incorrectly timed porch camera, calling police concerned about reported break-ins in the neighborhood.

Speaker 32 There's a guy in the house right now.

Speaker 32 And he said someone's breaking into it right now?

Speaker 32 No, it's all open. It's under construction.

Speaker 4 Four minutes after he enters, Ahmaud Arbrey exits the house and continues running.

Speaker 32 And he's running right now.

Speaker 11 Here he goes right now. Okay.
I just need to know what he was doing wrong.

Speaker 32 He's been caught on the camera a bunch before at night.

Speaker 32 Kind of an awesome thing out here.

Speaker 4 A different home camera picks up an image of Ahmad as he heads deeper into Satilla Shores.

Speaker 80 Mr. Greg McMichael was in his front yard working on some cushions for his boat when he sees Mr.
Aubrey running down the street.

Speaker 4 On police body camera, you can hear Greg McMichael kind of excitedly describing how Aubrey is running by.

Speaker 50 He comes hauling ass down the street. I mean, he ain't jogging.

Speaker 17 He's hooked up.

Speaker 50 I run in the house. I said, Travis, the same guy that broke in the house down there.

Speaker 12 I said, come on, let's go.

Speaker 50 So Travis runs and gets his shotgun.

Speaker 17 I grab my freak magnum.

Speaker 64 At 1.10 p.m., the porch camera picks up Greg and Travis McMichael in their truck, and they're driving, following Ahmad Arbery, and that's when the chase starts.

Speaker 4 Ahmaud then crosses over to Burford Road with the McMichaels following him in their truck.

Speaker 50 We see him come around the corner. He's going down here.
We pull up beside him.

Speaker 51 Hey, stop, stop.

Speaker 17 We want to talk to you.

Speaker 4 And he just keeps on riding William Roddy Bryan has this night owl camera and on that camera we see Ahmaud Arbery running by with the McMichaels following in their truck Roddy Bryan tells investigators that he's working on his porch when he sees what's happening so he grabs the keys to his pickup truck and joins the chaseway was gonna try to block you

Speaker 4 for five minutes Ahmaud is trapped in Satilla Shores and no matter which way he runs down Burford or up Holmes, there's a truck blocking him.

Speaker 4 Ronnie Bryan picks up his cell phone and begins recording what you see right here.

Speaker 74 I tried to block him again, that didn't happen. They went around me, so I turned around, come back.

Speaker 20 He started coming back towards me.

Speaker 4 Ronnie drops his phone. You can hear his truck maneuvering around.

Speaker 74 One time when I cornered him up over here, he was trying to get my truck.

Speaker 80 You can see some palm prints, appear to be swipes on the rear driver's side door.

Speaker 10 When Travis looks back, he sees Mr.

Speaker 69 Arbery trying to get into the truck.

Speaker 30 They tried to get in my door.

Speaker 80 So Travis is very much on guard.

Speaker 4 Roddy's video shows Ahmaud Arbery running along Holmes Road. And as he meets up with the McMichaels, he's boxed in.
At 1.14 p.m., Greg McMichael talks to a 911 operator.

Speaker 17 I'm not here to kill a short.

Speaker 51 There's a black male running down the street.

Speaker 13 And so you saw the son Travis get out of the truck with a Remington shotgun.

Speaker 50 Travis gets out with the damn shotgun.

Speaker 54 Ahmaud, you can tell, doesn't know what to do. He wants to run around.
He goes to the left. He sees Travis.
He goes to the right and then does go around the passenger side of the truck.

Speaker 72 We don't know why. Ahmaud Arbery went to the right and then crossed and turned in front of Travis McMichael's truck.

Speaker 25 The guy turns and comes at him.

Speaker 21 In the seconds that that confrontation happens is obscured by the pickup truck. We don't know exactly what went down.

Speaker 13 Travis McMichael and Ahmad Arbery were struggling over that shotgun and then the shots go off.

Speaker 13 He shoots him three times.

Speaker 13 You see him immediately collapse and it's over.

Speaker 54 A very short time after the shooting occurs, law enforcement is on the scene.

Speaker 54 And they get out of their vehicle, body cameras are on.

Speaker 20 He had no choice there.

Speaker 54 You know, you've got the McMichaels walking around

Speaker 45 and you've got Ahmad

Speaker 64 on the ground.

Speaker 54 Nobody initially focuses on Ahmad. He's the kid that's dying and probably may well not be dead yet.

Speaker 49 All right, guys, everybody's got their weapons up, correct? Everybody's got the weapons up.

Speaker 54 Once you feel like a scene is safe, then you immediately start rendering care to the person that's shot.

Speaker 82 There is eventually that by another officer that arrives on the scene.

Speaker 51 He's still breathing, David. Yeah, I know, and they're trying to do something for him.

Speaker 54 I think at that point, it's way too late.

Speaker 58 Just stay over there for me, sir. Just stay over there.

Speaker 71 Yeah, there's nothing I can do for this gentleman.

Speaker 30 He stopped breathing a couple of minutes ago.

Speaker 30 I had pressure on him, but there was nothing I could do.

Speaker 54 You can tell Travis is in total distress.

Speaker 55 He's walking around.

Speaker 6 He's sort of verbally agonizing.

Speaker 20 I told him, stop, stop, stop, till he hit me. I had nothing to do.

Speaker 20 There's nothing else I can do. It just doesn't look good.
I mean, it just shocked me.

Speaker 5 Roddy Bryan tries to help police. He admits he has the recording of the shooting.

Speaker 71 Nobody got us on video.

Speaker 20 You just witnessed it.

Speaker 30 I got it. You got it on video?

Speaker 24 I ain't looked at it.

Speaker 30 I thought he was going to get away.

Speaker 64 William Roddy Bryan tells officers that ultimately he was taking that video to identify Ahmaud Arbery to police.

Speaker 71 Because at this point, I could see his face my camera.

Speaker 74 I mean, if the guy would have stopped, you know what I mean? It would have never happened. You know, should we have been chasing him?

Speaker 12 I don't know.

Speaker 4 Within an hour of the shooting, Roddy is back working on his porch.

Speaker 5 February 23rd,

Speaker 5 everybody went home except Ahmaud Arbery.

Speaker 10 Travis and Greg McMichael have been stereotyped as southern rednecks out to kill black people because it's a sport.

Speaker 26 Greg sees it as a tragedy.

Speaker 4 A tragedy that he and his son set in motion.

Speaker 77 Well, one might say a tragedy that Ahmaud Arbery set in motion.

Speaker 4 If you want to understand how the events of February 23rd unfolded, you have to look at the background of the defendants as well as their lives in the Satilla Shores neighborhood.

Speaker 13 The neighborhood that Ahmad Arboree was killed in is a middle-class neighborhood. It's predominantly white.

Speaker 75 Like a lot of the neighborhoods, it's an interesting combination. You've got some marshfront property where you have some very nice homes.

Speaker 75 And then you have the interior homes on interior lots, which tend to be smaller and less special.

Speaker 21 Grain and Michael had a home there. Grain and Michael was in law enforcement for many years.
He was a cop first and then went to work for the Glen County District Attorney's Office.

Speaker 21 He was an investigator with them, had just retired a year previously.

Speaker 4 Tell me about his relationship with his son Travis.

Speaker 48 They're close. They both like the water.
Of course Travis was in the Coast Guard having grown up on the water like Greg did.

Speaker 69 Travis grew up in Brunswick. He went to Brunswick High School, graduated in 2004.
I live right there.

Speaker 21 Travis McMichael was 34 years old. He moved back in with his parents, and that's where he was in Sotilla Shores.

Speaker 12 How you doing, sir?

Speaker 21 William Brody Bryan lived in Satilla Shores, nearby the McMichaels. He worked in a hardware store.

Speaker 58 Roddy Bryan is a soft-to-the-earth kind of guy.

Speaker 75 He's the kind of person that everybody who meets likes.

Speaker 71 Nobody got us on video if you just witness it.

Speaker 12 I got it.

Speaker 21 Roddy Roddy Bryant. I mean, he supplied the next best thing for the prosecution to confession.

Speaker 9 At what point did you start videoing?

Speaker 30 Well, I thought he was going to get away.

Speaker 11 So that was,

Speaker 74 I don't know what I got because half the time I was trying to drive.

Speaker 4 How well did he know the McMichaels?

Speaker 7 Did he have a relationship with that family?

Speaker 76 He didn't have a relationship with that family.

Speaker 13 There was a perspective in that neighborhood that they were being menaced by somebody.

Speaker 76 And it really was a neighborhood on edge on February 23rd of 2020.

Speaker 12 Why on edge?

Speaker 76 Because the volume of theft

Speaker 75 had become a real issue.

Speaker 77 In the months from about October 2019 up to February of 2020, there had been a real uptick in property crimes in the neighborhood.

Speaker 18 Did Travis ever report a crime?

Speaker 69 Yes. On January 1st, 2020, when his gun was stolen out of his car, he filed a report with the police.

Speaker 58 Police responded and they made a report.

Speaker 4 Despite the defense claims that there was a spike in crime in the Satilla Shores neighborhood, the prosecution argues that in reality, there was only one other burglary call between January 2019 and February 23rd, 2020.

Speaker 21 Larry English was a homeowner. He had a homeowner construction in Satilla Shores.

Speaker 48 Larry English had reported to a neighbor that about $2,500 worth of electronics equipment had been taken from a boat that was parked at the house.

Speaker 26 And that's when he decided to get more cameras there.

Speaker 5 Later, he'd come to realize that he didn't know for sure where that stuff had gone missing.

Speaker 5 But to the residents there in Sotilla Shores, and specifically the McMichaels, They thought that stuff had disappeared from that construction site.

Speaker 21 Larry English had video footage showing people pointed it out. Like any construction site in the neighborhood, people will just sort of wonder, look, and see what the house is.

Speaker 9 There were no signs up that says no trespassing. There were no doors on the house at the moment.
We saw white couples sort of go on a date there and hang out on the property.

Speaker 9 We saw children come into play in this area of interest.

Speaker 4 We also saw from Larry English's video a black man on his property on three different occasions. Now at the time, nobody knew who this man was.
It was later confirmed that that man was Ahmaud Arbery.

Speaker 13 Ahmaud had been in that house a couple of times, not really picking up anything, not really looking like he intended to do anything, almost in a sense of being curious.

Speaker 5 Over the months leading up to the shooting, Larry English had called police several times when his security cameras would alert that somebody was on his property.

Speaker 17 There's somebody back over there on the property again tonight. It's a black male not wearing a shirt, got tattoos on his arms and a very light-colored shorts.
Looks like he's up to no good.

Speaker 12 Somebody's on the property, and then come in

Speaker 12 and run to his meeting. Why I'm telling

Speaker 12 you.

Speaker 4 By the time the police get there, those people would be gone.

Speaker 49 The county police, anybody in here?

Speaker 4 So one officer tells English that if this happens again, he should contact his neighbor, Greg McMichael.

Speaker 38 Did the families know each other?

Speaker 36 No, they did not.

Speaker 38 No.

Speaker 69 Greg McMichael had not talked directly with Larry English, but he talked to other neighbors about Larry English and the problems he was having with intruders in his home.

Speaker 17 911, what's the address of your emergency?

Speaker 5 Satilla Drive, 230, Satilla Drive.

Speaker 17 What's going on?

Speaker 32 I just caught a guy running into a house being built. two houses down from me.

Speaker 48 February 11th, just 12 days prior, Travis had left the house to to go put gas in his car. And as he drove past the English house, he saw a figure in the yard and he recognized the guy.

Speaker 26 He thought that's the guy we've seen before on the video.

Speaker 17 What did he look like?

Speaker 32 It's a black male, red shirt, white, shorts. When I turned around and saw him and backed up, he reached into his pocket.

Speaker 32 So I don't know if he's armed or not, but he looked like he was acting like he was.

Speaker 4 Do you think he was there to burglarize that home?

Speaker 34 Of course not.

Speaker 12 No.

Speaker 4 A lot of people cannot understand how did a man lose his life when there was no evidence of a serious crime being committed.

Speaker 48 That's the wrong question. It's inaccurate.

Speaker 4 It's not what's the right question.

Speaker 48 Why did Ahmaud Arbury decide to attack Travis holding a shotgun? Because that's what led to the loss of Ahmaud Arbury's life.

Speaker 4 So a guy just on a truck jumps out and points a shotgun at you, and Ahmaud Arbury is supposed to just stop?

Speaker 10 The Ahmaud Arbury case is not about black-white. It's about does a citizen have a right to protect their neighborhood and then ultimately himself.

Speaker 4 When you hear that they say that race has no bearing on this case,

Speaker 26 what is your reaction?

Speaker 34 There's three men chasing a black young man. He's unarmed, they have weapons, they have a truck.
What else could it be?

Speaker 5 My boy been shot three times.

Speaker 6 Two times in the chest and one time in the arm.

Speaker 5 And you mean to tell me that ain't hate?

Speaker 25 This is a racial hate crime. It's hate.

Speaker 25 I am alive. I am alive.
I am alive. I am alike.
Let's take our mic and let's man up the streets out here.

Speaker 43 One of the things that this case brings to light is the extent to which race and racism manifests itself on people's bodies.

Speaker 43 The Ahmad Arbery case is really a horrible demonstration of that, the extent to which this black man was running through a neighborhood, people saw him, and they responded to him as if he was a threat.

Speaker 24 If you see a white man running, you think, well, there's a jogger.

Speaker 38 You have the ultimate freedom of movement.

Speaker 24 If you see a black man running, I think you call into question why he's running.

Speaker 21 You can't ignore race him and if Armon Arbore was white, I think it's fair to say he'd be alive.

Speaker 11 What do we want?

Speaker 11 What do we want?

Speaker 45 This whole community in Glenn County was already aflame with anger, with concern that this was a hate crime that had happened in their own backyard.

Speaker 45 People saw the vanity plate on Travis McMichael's truck that also has a Confederate emblem on it. So everybody started having a story about the alleged racism of the McMichaels.

Speaker 4 Is Greg McMichael a racist?

Speaker 77 What's your definition of racist?

Speaker 4 Is he somebody who is racially intolerant?

Speaker 48 No. No, if it means I have a belief as a white person, Greg McMichael, that black people are inferior to white people, no.
he doesn't believe that.

Speaker 10 Travis and Greg McMichael have been stereotyped as southern rednecks out to kill black people because it's a sport and there's nothing in their background to suggest that.

Speaker 10 There's a clear understanding of the power structure in the South.

Speaker 43 Whiteness is on top.

Speaker 10 Blackness is subservient.

Speaker 43 And Ahmad Arbery became an unfortunate chapter in that long history of southern culture.

Speaker 82 What we have is a string connecting the past and present, and that string is citizens' arrest.

Speaker 72 The citizens' arrest law in Georgia allows a private citizen to, if they observe a crime being committed, allows them to detain that person until the police arrive.

Speaker 72 The history of the citizens' arrest statute in Georgia dates back to the Civil War era.

Speaker 82 They passed this law to control enslaved Africans who are trying to flee. It empowers any white person to basically stop any black person and arrest them.

Speaker 43 In the aftermath of slavery, 1865, black people were in this sort of strange position. newly freed in the South.

Speaker 83 And then by the 1880s, that hope turned into terror.

Speaker 83 Segregation, lynching, the Klan, all of those things were rooted in a set of racist practices that were about organizing where black people could and could not go.

Speaker 54 The citizens' arrest laws essentially become cover for the lynching of thousands of African Americans in Georgia and in the American South.

Speaker 4 In May of 2021, the state of Georgia amended its citizens' arrest law, dramatically limiting its use.

Speaker 7 I think the state of Georgia is moving in the right direction. Unfortunately, I had to lose my son to get significant change, but again, I'm still thankful.

Speaker 21 And Wanda, you know, she doesn't want just justice, but she wants change.

Speaker 44 The demand for a hate crimes law grew louder after the killing of Ahmaud Arbury in South Georgia.

Speaker 13 It was sufficient to move the Georgia legislature, one of the most conservative legislatures in the country, to enact a hate crime law.

Speaker 69 Ahmaud Arbery's life mattered.

Speaker 16 Not only did it matter to those who knew him and loved him, it also mattered to state law in Georgia.

Speaker 59 And nothing can change that.

Speaker 10 Greg and Travis McMichael did not set out to kill anybody. They set out to detain Ahmaud Arbery until police could arrive.

Speaker 50 We see him come around the corner. He's going down here.
We pull up beside him.

Speaker 17 Hey, stop, stop. We want to talk to you.

Speaker 51 And he just keeps on running.

Speaker 4 And Arbury is supposed to know that. These are citizens who are making a citizen's arrest.
He's supposed to know that?

Speaker 77 What Ahmaud Arbery knows is I've now been caught after having been in that home.

Speaker 4 Did police find anything on his body that had been stolen?

Speaker 12 No.

Speaker 4 Was there anything from the home that he seemed to be carrying at some point?

Speaker 20 I told him, stop, stop, stop till he hit me. I had nothing to do.

Speaker 20 There's nothing else I can do.

Speaker 48 Greg certainly didn't want Ahmaud Arbery to get hurt or killed. That was not his hope or intention.
And so, yeah, that's a tragedy.

Speaker 26 He sees it as a tragedy.

Speaker 4 A tragedy that he and his son set in motion.

Speaker 77 Well, one might say a tragedy that Ahmaud Arbery set in motion.

Speaker 4 Ahmaud Arbury set in motion by being in a home that wasn't his.

Speaker 4 On the fifth day of the trial, Kevin Goff drops a bombshell of a comment.

Speaker 70 If their pastor's Al Sharpton right now, that's fine, but then that's it.

Speaker 73 We don't want any more black pastors coming in here.

Speaker 70 If a bunch of folks came in here dressed like Colonel Sanders with white masks sitting in the back, I mean, that would be catastrophic.

Speaker 63 An all-new season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is now streaming on Hulu.

Speaker 79 Mom Talk started as a sisterhood, and that's gone to flames. New secrets and lies are coming out.
This is going to be catastrophic.

Speaker 37 We're fighting for our marriages, and the girls are just putting us through hell.

Speaker 79 They make everything about themselves.

Speaker 62 I can't.

Speaker 79 Hopefully, this doesn't end in a bloodbath.

Speaker 63 Watch the Hulu original: The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers.

Speaker 84 Terms apply.

Speaker 62 Give it up for Chicago.

Speaker 84 Sebastian Maniscalco's new stand-up special, It Ain't Right, is coming to Hulu on November 21st.

Speaker 62 30 years ago, Jeff Bezos, complete nerd. Bezos now ripped to shreds on his super yacht and the boxes keep

Speaker 62 coming.

Speaker 84 Sebastian Maniscalco, It Ain't Right, premieres November 21st, streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

Speaker 45 Tonight jury selection is about to get underway in the murder trial of three white Georgia men for the fatal shooting of Ahmad Aubrey.

Speaker 72 This jury selection was unlike anything that Southeast Georgia had seen. 1,000 people were summoned in order to pick a pool to whittle it down to a jury panel of 12.

Speaker 39 We come here today focused on getting justice because you cannot lynch a black man in America in 2021 and think that it would be handled the same way that we handed matters back in the 1950s.

Speaker 5 No one knew what the final makeup of that jury plus the alternates were until the special prosecutor Linda Donikowski stood up and it was a bombshell.

Speaker 85 African American jurors made up one quarter of the jury panel but the actual jury that was selected has only one African-American male on it.

Speaker 5 Of the 12 African Americans in that pool, the defense had struck 11 of the 12.

Speaker 4 To a lot of people, this looked like the epitome of discrimination, especially when you consider that nearly 27% of Glenn County is black.

Speaker 8 This court has found that there appears to be intentional discrimination in the panel. Quite a few African-American jurors were excused through preemptory strikes exercised by the defense.

Speaker 8 But that doesn't mean the court has the authority to reseat.

Speaker 72 In the court of public opinion, it just didn't sit well with many of the leaders in the community that this jury would not accurately reflect the community where Amon Arbury was killed.

Speaker 71 We're going to turn now to the very difficult start to the trial in the Ahmaud Arbury case today, the emotional scene inside that courtroom in Georgia.

Speaker 57 Why are we here?

Speaker 66 We are here because of assumptions and driveway decisions.

Speaker 5 Special Prosecutor Linda Donikowski got up and talked for nearly an hour and a half, laying out slowly and piece by piece what she thought this jury should know.

Speaker 66 Greg McMichael is in front of 230 Cistilla Drive. He's all alone.

Speaker 33 And he sees Mr. Arbery running really, really fast down the street.

Speaker 42 He actually uses the words, hauling ass.

Speaker 4 Ladies and gentlemen, this is driveway decision number one.

Speaker 66 And what does he decide to do?

Speaker 66 He runs inside.

Speaker 66 to get his gun. He's assumed the worst and has absolutely no immediate knowledge of any crime whatsoever.

Speaker 72 That really set the tone for this entire case.

Speaker 72 That this jury needed to focus on the fact that the defendants didn't have any concrete evidence when they decided to go chase and ultimately kill Ahmaud Arbery.

Speaker 66 Target McMichael made the decision, a knowing, intelligent decision, to pick up a Remington 12 gauge shotgun and go with his father and get in his pickup truck to go after Mr.

Speaker 52 Arbery.

Speaker 66 Driveway decision number two.

Speaker 66 And then Mr. Bryan makes his driveway decision and he joins the McMichaels in chasing down Mr.

Speaker 17 Harbery.

Speaker 66 Greg McMichaels said it perfectly. Mr.
Arbery was trapped like a rat. That's what he told the police.

Speaker 66 Trapped like a rat.

Speaker 5 The defense, through their opening statements, made it very clear that they believe the McMichaels were defending their neighborhood.

Speaker 42 This case

Speaker 12 is about duty and responsibility.

Speaker 10 It's about Travis McMichael's duty and responsibility to himself,

Speaker 10 to his family,

Speaker 71 and to his neighborhood.

Speaker 64 They continuously use the arguments of self-defense and citizens' arrest, highlighting that the video doesn't tell the whole story.

Speaker 10 Travis has no choice but to fire his weapon in self-defense. He's on Travis and Travis has to fire because at that point it's his life

Speaker 60 or Ahmaud Arbery's life.

Speaker 4 As the state went on presenting its case, they played for the jury that video recorded by Roddy Bryan. Mr.

Speaker 66 Arbery ran away from these three defendants in their pickup trucks for five minutes.

Speaker 5 Marcus Arbery, Ahmaud's father, walked out of court. He didn't want to see it.

Speaker 5 Wanda Cooper-Jones sat in the back corner of that courtroom and for the first time saw the complete video of her son being shot.

Speaker 7 I avoided a video for the last 18 months and I thought it was time to get familiar with what happened to Ahmad. I'm glad I was able to stay strong and stay in there.

Speaker 86 At this time the statement call officer Jeffrey Brandenberg.

Speaker 4 The prosecution calls to the witness stand the Glenn County police officers who arrived on the scene after Ahmaud had been shot.

Speaker 86 Did Gregory Michael ever indicate to you at that time that he thought Ahmaud Arbery, the guy, had committed a crime that day? No, ma'am.

Speaker 86 While speaking with you, did Greg McMichael ever use the word burglary? No, ma'am. Did he ever use the word trespass? No, ma'am.

Speaker 86 Did he ever tell you while you're talking to him that he was attempting to make a citizen's arrest? No, ma'am.

Speaker 86 Did he ever even use the word arrest? No, ma'am. Did he ever even use the word detain?

Speaker 38 No, ma'am.

Speaker 4 The defense is going to have to prove that they suspected Ahmad was committing a felony in order for the McMichaels to claim they were trying to make a citizen's arrest.

Speaker 58 Governor, I was reminded of one matter that I wanted to address.

Speaker 4 On the fifth day of the trial, without the jury present, Kevin Goff makes a bombshell of a comment.

Speaker 35 The Right Reverend Al Sharpton managed to find his way into the back of the courtroom.

Speaker 70 If we're going to bring high-profile members of the African-American community into the courtroom to sit with the family during the trial in the presence of the jury.

Speaker 70 I believe that's intimidating and it's an attempt to pressure. And if that their pastor's Al Sharpton right now, that's fine, but then that's it.

Speaker 49 We don't want any more black pastors coming in here.

Speaker 70 If a bunch of folk came in here dressed like Colonel Sanders with white masks sitting in the back, I mean, that would be terrible.

Speaker 20 I'm not sure.

Speaker 28 That statement was totally asinine, ridiculous.

Speaker 53 This case is not about racism or racist motives. This is just a neighborhood and some people trying to do the best they could to stop the crime in the neighborhood.

Speaker 5 The defense insists it's not about race, but everywhere you look, every time you try to get away from race, race comes back in.

Speaker 86 I will follow up with a more specific motion on Monday and my apologies to anyone who might have inadvertently get affected.

Speaker 45 Kevin Goff gave what he called an apology, but it wasn't taken that way by a lot of people.

Speaker 7 He spoke his mind. Actually,

Speaker 7 he spoke his heart.

Speaker 86 All right for the jury.

Speaker 45 After the state arrested, the defense really hadn't signaled who their witnesses were going to be and whether any of the defendants were going to take the stand.

Speaker 28 We're asking the court not to ask him if he's going to testify or not, but the court can inform him of his rights.

Speaker 4 Then, to everybody's surprise, Travis McMichael, the man who actually shot and killed Amon Arbrey, takes the witness stand.

Speaker 8 Swear, tell the truth, tell truth, and nothing but the truth.

Speaker 12 I do.

Speaker 72 Kevin Gogh's statement about black pastors being in the gallery created a windstorm of a reaction.

Speaker 12 Look at what you brought now.

Speaker 68 Outside the Glenn County Courthouse in Georgia today, hundreds of black pastors came to pray.

Speaker 11 God, we're looking for a miracle.

Speaker 45 Black pastors in Georgia, black pastors in America, are synonymous with the civil rights movement.

Speaker 13 It speaks to the two different Americas that still exist. That for this white man, this lawyer, he saw the presence of black ministers as a menace, as a threat.

Speaker 58 In black America, these are revered figures who provide comfort and context in difficult moments.

Speaker 4 Inside the Glenn County Courtroom, the defense is now presenting its case.

Speaker 15 Defense calls Travis McMichael.

Speaker 72 When Travis McMichael was called as the first defense witness, it shocked everyone. Jaws were dropping.

Speaker 72 Travis McMichael looked a lot different on the stand than he did in the body camera footage.

Speaker 45 Putting Travis on the stand does make him more humane and likable than what the video presents him as.

Speaker 6 I want to

Speaker 30 give my side of the story.

Speaker 31 I want to explain what happened.

Speaker 45 Travis' lawyers have tried to put together a picture of him as someone who cared about safety, someone who cared about the well-being of his parents.

Speaker 57 Did they share things with you about what they were hearing happening in the neighborhood about crime?

Speaker 30 They did.

Speaker 72 Travis McMichael was able to give this jury his Coast Guard history, his training as a law enforcement officer.

Speaker 57 Do you have any training on hand-to-hand combat?

Speaker 49 Yes.

Speaker 81 Did you have any training on how to retain your weapon?

Speaker 49 Yes.

Speaker 72 The defense wants to suggest that he was essentially the pseudo-cop in his neighborhood.

Speaker 81 Did you want to stop him and hold him so the police could come and arrest him?

Speaker 6 That was my plan, yes, sir.

Speaker 4 The courtroom is silent as Travis McMichael talks about those final moments with Ahmaud Arbrey.

Speaker 11 What did you do?

Speaker 6 I shot.

Speaker 49 Why? He had my gun.

Speaker 40 He struck me.

Speaker 71 It was obvious that he was

Speaker 14 obvious that

Speaker 40 he was attacking me that if he would have got the shotgun from me, then it was a This is a life or death situation. And I'm going to have to stop him from doing this.
So I shot.

Speaker 72 This was a major risk to take the stand as a defendant in this case because they are faced with a video that shows them chasing Ahmaud Arbery. They'd have to explain why they did that.

Speaker 72 And the danger is that they don't have a concrete reason to be chasing him.

Speaker 17 Thank you, Judge.

Speaker 45 The prosecutor, Linda Denikowski, came out of the gate really hot. She went straight to the cornerstone of the defense's case, which is all wrapped up in citizens' arrest.

Speaker 33 Not once during your direct examination did you state that your intention was to effectuate an arrest of Mr.

Speaker 45 Arbery until your attorney asked you that leading question, isn't that right?

Speaker 71 Yes.

Speaker 4 The prosecutor is clearly trying to get Travis McMichael to acknowledge that he never saw Ahmaud Arbery doing anything wrong.

Speaker 66 And you had no idea what he'd actually been doing that day?

Speaker 75 Not at that time, though.

Speaker 72 One of the most effective parts of the prosecutor's cross-examination is when she asks Travis McMichael what Ahmaud Arbery wasn't doing and she gives a list.

Speaker 86 And he never yelled at you guys? No, ma'am. Never threatened you at all? Yeah, he did not threaten me verbally, no mail.

Speaker 72 It essentially was poking a hole over and over in the defense's claim of self-defense.

Speaker 86 Didn't brandish any weapons?

Speaker 14 No, ma'am.

Speaker 86 Didn't pull out any guns? No ma'am. Didn't pull out any knife? No ma'am.
Never reached for anything, did he?

Speaker 75 Uh no.

Speaker 86 He just rang?

Speaker 86 Yes, he was just rang.

Speaker 45 The prosecutor really challenged Travis McMichael's contention that Arbre was a threat to him.

Speaker 86 Your father is in the pickup truck, correct? Yes, ma'am. And he has his 357 Magnum, correct?

Speaker 86 He has it, yes.

Speaker 45 Finally, she built this picture of the power imbalance of an exhausted young man coming up to this huge pickup truck with with two armed white men.

Speaker 86 So you're telling this jury that a man who has spent five minutes running away from you, you're now thinking is somehow going to want to continue to engage with you,

Speaker 86 someone with a shotgun, and your father, a man who's just said, stop or I'll blow your head off, by trying to get in their truck?

Speaker 86 That's what it shows, yes, ma'am.

Speaker 4 Over the course of two days, Travis McMichael testifies for six hours. He would be the only defendant to take the stand.
The only other witnesses called by the defense?

Speaker 86 Swear to tell the truth, whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Thank you.

Speaker 4 A handful of neighbors in Sotilla Shores.

Speaker 45 The defense was trying to create this continuous narrative of a neighborhood under threat.

Speaker 45 They wanted neighbors to corroborate what Travis McMichael had said was true, which was the neighborhood was on edge.

Speaker 86 Other than the homicide of Mr. Aubrey,

Speaker 86 violent crimes were few and far between or non-existent in the neighborhood. Is that correct? That is correct.

Speaker 25 This is ironic.

Speaker 72 The most violent crime that these neighbors in Satilla Shores would have witnessed is the death of Ahmaud Arbery, which was carried out by one of their own.

Speaker 71 We turn next to closing arguments in the Ahmaud Arbery case.

Speaker 9 It was clear that in the prosecution's closing in this case, they wanted to drive home this idea of just how imbalanced the situation was on February 23rd.

Speaker 66 Three-on-one, two pickup trucks, two guns. They want you to believe that he is the danger to them and he was scary.

Speaker 4 After the closing arguments, it's now up to the jury to decide the fate of the three men. The jury deliberated for 11 hours.

Speaker 4 Outside the courthouse, a crowd crowd has been gathering, waiting for the verdict.

Speaker 8 Madam Florids, I understand you have reached a verdict as to each defendant.

Speaker 7 We have.

Speaker 4 It's the day before Thanksgiving, and a crowd has now gathered outside the courthouse.

Speaker 4 After 11 hours of deliberation, the jury has reached a verdict.

Speaker 8 Madam Florids, please hand your verdict forms to the sheriff.

Speaker 8 Mr. McMichael, please stand.

Speaker 8 Verdict is as follows. In the Superior Court of Glenn County, state of Georgia, the state of Georgia versus Travis McMichael,

Speaker 8 count one, malice murder.

Speaker 8 We, the jury, find the defendant Travis McMichael guilty.

Speaker 4 She vowed to find justice for her son. Wanda Cooper-Jones kept her promise.

Speaker 40 As to Gregory McMichael,

Speaker 40 count two, felony murder.

Speaker 6 Guilty.

Speaker 40 As to William R.

Speaker 36 Bryan, count three, felony murder.

Speaker 12 Guilty.

Speaker 4 All three men guilty of murder.

Speaker 4 Ahmaud Arbry's family has been waiting more than a year and eight months for this moment.

Speaker 2 And let the word go forth all over the world that a jury of 11 whites and one black

Speaker 2 in the deep south

Speaker 2 stood up in the courtroom and said that black lives do matter.

Speaker 6 Let's keep fighting.

Speaker 2 Let's keep joining and making this place a better place for all human beings. Amen.

Speaker 87 I never thought this day would come. Thank you for those who marched,

Speaker 87 those who prayed, most of all, the ones who prayed.

Speaker 27 The verdict shows in this case of the death of Ahmaud Arbery that citizens' arrests and self-defense was not something that the jury bought.

Speaker 58 I was deeply disappointed. I mean, I really felt that this jury was going to acquit Mr.
Bryan.

Speaker 10 There's enough tragedy in this case to go around.

Speaker 29 Lee McMichael has lost her husband and her son through this verdict, and she's devastated.

Speaker 47 I hope history looks back on this case as a case where we sought justice for Ahmaud, we sought justice for the family, and that justice was done.

Speaker 4 What would you say to the McMichaels and Mr. Bryan if you could?

Speaker 7 Yeah, Ahma's not coming home.

Speaker 7 I've lost my son. They go to jail.

Speaker 7 They still have life.

Speaker 12 I've lost my son.

Speaker 4 You've been listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault. Friday nights at 9 on ABC.
You can also find all new broadcast episodes of 2020.

Speaker 25 Thanks for listening.

Speaker 63 Coming to Disney Plus in Hulu. Cassidy, get us home.
Jonas, brother, you got it.

Speaker 55 It'll be the best Jonas Christmas ever.

Speaker 73 Can't wait to see you guys. We love you.

Speaker 63 If they can only make it home.

Speaker 84 What's going on? Our tour plane burned? No.

Speaker 60 We cannot miss Christmas. Wake up.

Speaker 37 Nothing can stop us from getting off now.

Speaker 62 Only

Speaker 62 you won't be alone this trip.

Speaker 52 You lost all three of your passports?

Speaker 61 It's Christmas. Anything can happen, right?

Speaker 55 A very Jonas Christmas movie, now streaming on Disney Plus and Hulu, rated TVPGDL.