Cop Says Ahmaud Arbery May Have Faced Trespassing Charge But Not Theft

ATLANTA, GA — A police officer testified on Thursday during the trial for federal hate crimes charges against the men charged with the murder of Ahmaud Arbery that Arbery didn't steal from a house under construction, as the defendants had argued, but might have been cited for trespassing.

On Feb. 23, 2020, Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was chased down, trapped, shot and killed by three white men in pick-up trucks as he was running through a neighborhood in coastal Glynn County.

On Wednesday jurors heard an FBI intelligence analyst testify that text messages between Travis McMichael – who fatally shot Arbery – and friends using offensive language and racist slurs, CNN said.

One text between Travis McMichael and a friend said McMichael liked that he didn’t work with Black people.

“They ruin everything,” McMichael said in the message, according to FBI analyst Amy Vaughan, CNN reported.

Ahmaud Arbery would not have been killed if he were white, prosecutors said in court.

Vaughan also testified messages found in defendant William “Roddie” Bryan’s phone showed evidence of racial hatred.

Glynn County Police Officer Robert Rash was on the witness stand during the fourth day of the trial.

“Nothing has been taken and the only crime we had was trespassing,” Rash said during the trial, the Associated Press reported.

After going several months with no arrests, video footage showing the shooting prompted the State Attorney General's Office to launch an investigation that led to murder charges against Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael and their neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan Jr.

Bryan and the McMichaels invoked the state's citizen's arrest law to justify chasing Arbery. At the request of Gov. Brian Kemp last Spring, state lawmakers passed amendments to the law outlawing vigilante justice by civilians. The state legislature also voted a hate crimes bill into law.

A Glynn County jury in November found all three men guilty of murder charges, and a judge last month sentenced them to life prison sentences.

This week's trial is ongoing in U.S. District Court in the Georgia port city of Brunswick, and opening arguments began Tuesday. It was brought by federal prosecutors, the AP said, and charged the men with violating Arbery's civil rights, and targeting him because he was Black.

Text messages between Travis McMichael and Bryan, and social media posts shown to the jury included numerous racial slurs and derogatory comments against Black people, including violence, the AP reported.

All three men have pleaded not guilty to the hate crime charges, instead insisting they were protecting the neighborhood.

Rash was the responding officer 12 days prior when Travis McMichael called 911 to report a Black man, later confirmed as Arbery, went into a home under construction. Rash contacted the owners who confirmed they only saw Arbery entering the home, not stealing anything, on their security cameras.

Travis McMichael also said there had been a string of burglaries in the neighborhood, which Rash disproved. Rash did, however, say there had been a theft of a gun, but a security camera showed it was a white man. He also said a white couple had been recorded going into the unfinished home.

When questioned if Arbery's repeated trips to the home at nighttime was suspicious, Rash agreed, according to the AP, and said if the couple had done the same thing, it would have also been suspicious.

During the testimony, Rash said if he had seen Arbery or anyone else at the unfinished house, he would have warned them the homeowner did not want anyone there, and they would be arrested for trespassing if they returned.

Related:

• Ahmaud Arbery Day To Be Recognized Feb. 23 In GA
• Ahmaud Arbery Hate Crime Trial Jury Selection Continues: Report
• Ahmaud Arbery Hate Crimes Trial: Judge Rejects Plea Deal
• Ahmaud Arbery's Killers Sentenced To Prison For Vigilante Murder
• Ahmaud Arbery Verdict: 3 Defendants Convicted On Murder Charges