Ahmaud Arbery was hit with a truck before he died, and his killer allegedly used a racial slur, investigator testifies

William Bryan told investigators he heard Travis McMichael use a racial epithet after fatally shooting Ahmaud Arbery in Glynn County, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified Thursday at a preliminary hearing.

The hearing lasted about seven hours, with the judge ruling all three defendants — McMichael; his father, Gregory McMichael; and William “Roddie” Bryan — would stand trial on all charges.

The details of Arbery’s last moments emerged amid a week of nationwide protests over another killing — that of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis — and demonstrators have also called for justice in Arbery’s case.

GBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Richard Dial testified that Bryan told police Travis McMichael said “f***ing n***er” after three blasts from his shotgun left Arbery dead in the street in the Satilla Shores neighborhood in February. Body camera footage also showed a Confederate flag sticker on the toolbox of McMichael’s truck, he said.

On cross-examination, Dial testified Bryan mentioned the slur in a May 13 GBI interview, and to Dial’s knowledge, Bryan had not previously made the allegation, including during a May 11 interview.

However, the agent said, there were “numerous times” on social media and via messaging services that McMichael used the same slur, once messaging someone that he loved his job because there “weren’t any N-words anywhere.”

In another instance sometime before the shooting, he replied in an Instagram message that things would be better if someone had “blown that N-word’s head off,” Dial testified. Dial did not say to whom McMichael was referring. Dial was not asked for more context.

Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper, told CNN’s Chris Cuomo she was devastated when she heard Dial’s testimony.

“I often imagine the last minutes of my son’s life. I didn’t imagine it would be that harsh, but to learn that that statement was made in the last seconds of his life … it was very heartbreaking,” she said.

Bryan, too, had several messages on his phone that included “racial” terms and indicated he may have prejudged Arbery when he saw him that day, Dial said.

“There’s evidence of Mr. Bryan’s racist attitude in his communications, and from that I extrapolate the reason why he made assumptions he did that day,” he said. “He saw a man running down the road with a truck following him, and I believe he made certain assumptions that were, at least in part, based upon his racial bias.”

Scores of protesters gathered outside the courthouse after the hearing, and they could be heard chanting, “All lives matter when black lives matter,” according to CNN affiliate WJXT.

The pursuit

The allegations came as Dial outlined events that led to Arbery’s death and said that before Arbery was shot, the three men charged in his murder engaged in an elaborate chase, hitting the 25-year-old jogger with a truck as he tried to escape them.

Asked whether he believed McMichael could’ve been acting in self-defense, Dial said the opposite was true.

“I believe Mr. Arbery was being pursued, and he ran till he couldn’t run anymore, and it was turn his back to a man with a shotgun or fight with his bare hands against the man with the shotgun. He chose to fight,” he said. “I believe Mr. Arbery’s decision was to just try to get away, and when he felt like he could not escape he chose to fight.”

As Travis and Gregory McMichael attempted to head him off, Arbery turned and ran past the truck of Bryan, who recorded the killing, and Bryan struck Arbery with the side of his truck, Dial said.

Bryan told police that at one point he thought Arbery was trying to enter his truck, Dial said, adding that he didn’t know whether that was true but he felt Arbery was trying to escape.

Investigators found a swipe from a palm print on the rear door of Bryan’s truck, cotton fibers near the truck bed that “we attribute to contact with Mr. Arbery” and a dent below the fibers, he said.

Bryan’s attorney, Kevin Gough, said his client was working on his porch and didn’t have any idea of what the McMichaels were doing.

Bryan “sees someone he doesn’t know followed by a truck that he does. He does, with all due respect, what any patriotic American would have done under the same circumstances,” Gough said.

Attorney Lee Merritt, who is representing members of Arbery’s family, responded by saying, “That is no longer the America we wish to live in.”

Arbery tried to escape, agent says

Though Bryan’s attorney has contested allegations his client took part in the killing, Dial said Bryan yelled to the McMichaels, “Do you got him?” when he saw them chasing the 25-year-old jogger. The McMichaels and Bryan have not entered pleas, but lawyers for all three men have proclaimed their innocence.

After yelling out to the McMichaels, Bryan joined the chase, at which point none of the three had called 911, Dial said.

The McMichaels had already tried to head off Arbery once when Bryan joined the pursuit, the GBI agent said. Bryan tried to block in Arbery as Travis McMichael drove around the block with his father in the bed of the truck, he said.

Bryan “made several statements about trying to block him in and using his vehicle to try to stop him,” Dial said. “His statement was that Mr. Arbery kept jumping out of the way and moving around the bumper and actually running down into the ditch in an attempt to avoid his truck.”

At one point, Arbery was heading out of the Satilla Shores neighborhood where the defendants live, but the McMichaels forced him to turn back into the neighborhood and run past Bryan, the agent said. That is when he struck Arbery, Dial said, and Arbery kept running with the McMichaels in pursuit.

Bryan turned around, and that is where the widely disseminated video of Arbery’s killing begins, he said.

When police arrived after the shooting, Dial said, Gregory McMichael said in remarks caught on police body camera footage that he didn’t know for certain if Arbery had stolen anything.

“He had a gut feeling that Mr. Arbery may have been responsible for thefts that were in the neighborhood previously. He actually says gut. His instinct told him that,” the GBI agent said.

Travis McMichael told police that he ordered Arbery to get on the ground before the shooting, and Gregory McMichael also told an officer he had instructed his son, “Don’t shoot,” Dial said.

The McMichaels, charged with murder and aggravated assault, appeared wearing face masks from the Glynn County Detention Center a few miles away from the courthouse.

Bryan waived his right to appear. He was arrested last month on charges that include felony murder.

Homeowner didn’t testify

Prosecutor Jesse Evans, of Cobb County in metro Atlanta, opened by saying the evidence would show the McMichaels “chased, hunted down and ultimately executed” Arbery.

The GBI took over the investigation after Glynn County police and two prosecutors declined to press charges. Atlantic Judicial Circuit District Attorney Tom Durden became the third prosecutor to recuse himself after the GBI assistance he requested promptly yielded charges.

Larry English, who owns an under-construction home where Arbery stopped before he was shot, did not testify Thursday. He wasn’t subpoenaed, his attorney Elizabeth Graddy said.

Men’s attorneys proclaim innocence

Bryan’s attorney has repeatedly insisted that his client was merely an observer and has questioned why state police charged the man he labels the prosecution’s “star witness.”

Travis McMichael, who is accused of the actual February 23 shooting outside of Brunswick, is not guilty, his attorneys say, as “compelling evidence” will demonstrate.

“Travis has been vilified before his voice could even be heard,” the lawyers said in a statement. “The truth in this case will exonerate Travis.”

Gregory McMichael is also a victim of a rush to judgment, his attorney said.

“So often the public accepts a narrative driven by an incomplete set of facts, one that vilifies a good person,” defense attorney Laura Hogue said in a statement.

Added co-counsel Frank Hogue, “The full story, to be revealed in time, will tell the truth about this case.”

State prepares for protests

Demonstrations are expected. The NAACP has organized a protest for 5:45 p.m. outside the courthouse.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has warned “bad actors” not to mar what have “been very peaceful gatherings in that community for well over a month now.”

“Let me be clear once again: We will not tolerate disruptive or dangerous behavior, including criminal conduct, and we will put the safety of our citizens first,” he said in a news conference.

The Georgia State Patrol, state Department of Natural Resources officers, National Guard troops and state Emergency Management Agency officials will be on hand to assist local authorities, the governor said.

The shooting

Gregory and Travis McMichael were arrested May 7. The father and son pursued Arbery after suspecting him in a rash of area break-ins, the elder McMichael told police, according to DIal.

The McMichaels armed themselves and, with Bryan’s help, tried to head off Arbery as he ran through their neighborhood.

Bryan’s video picks up before the third attempt, and Arbery is seen trying to avoid the McMichaels’ pickup truck, which is stopped in the road, before abruptly turning toward Travis McMichael in front of the truck.

A shot goes off as they struggle over the gun. The two disappear off the left side of the screen. Gregory McMichael draws a handgun but does not shoot.

A second shot is heard as Arbery and the younger McMichael are off screen. As the men come back into view, they continue fighting for the shotgun. Arbery throws a punch at Travis McMichael’s head as a third shot is heard.

Arbery steps back as blood appears on the back of his T-shirt under his left rib cage. He stumbles and falls in the middle of the street as Travis McMichael walks away.

The Justice Department has launched a hate crime investigation in the case, Merritt has said.