Ahmaud Arbery case: White man 'used racial slur' after shooting unarmed jogger

Moments after shooting Ahmaud Arbery thrice in Georgia over suspicion, one of the white men charged in the killing was heard using a racial slur, an investigator testified in court on June 4. During a five-hour-long argument to determine if there is enough evidence for a murder trial, Special Agent Richard Dial of Georgia Bureau of Investigation made an explosive allegation in one of the most prominent cases involving racial orientation of the dead. He said that William Bryan, one of the defendants, had informed his office in an interview that took place in May that Travis McMichael uttered the slur when Arbery was laying on the ground with the gunshot wounds on February 23. 

“Mr Bryan said that after the shooting took place before police arrival, while Mr Arbery was on the ground, that he heard Travis McMichael make the statement, ‘f**** ing n***er,’” Dial said.

After the prosecutor said that the 25-year-old-man who was jogging in his neighbourhood was “chased, hunted and ultimately executed”, the Glynn County Chief Magistrate Judge Wallace Harrell has now ruled that a probable cause existed and the case could go to trial. Bryan and McMichael are both defendants in the Arbery killing case. In his testimony, Dial mentioned that the slur which used before police had arrived at the scene, were also used several times by McMichael on social media. Moreover, he added, there were racially derogatory test messages on Bryan’s phone.

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Dial’s testimony in Arbery killing

Dial even testified that the former United States Coast Guard boarding officer, McMichael had once told a friend that he loved his job because he was on a boat and “there weren’t any N-words anywhere”. While strengthening his case to prove enough evidence for a murder trial, the investigator said that all three defendants, Bryan, Travis McMichael, and his father had chased Arbery in pickup trucks and were planning to ‘box him in’ while he was jogging. 

The father-son duo of McMichaels is charged with murder and aggravated assault while Bryan who recorded the killing on his phone is facing charges of murder as well as attempting to illegally detain and confine. Travis McMichael has denied the charges and told the police that he shot Arbery in self-defence after the 25-year-old refused to get on the ground. They had cited that Arbery resembled the suspect of a series of local break-ins. However, Dial has said that he confronted Arbery after the later ran into a ditch while trying to escape.

Richard Dial has even cited close examination of the video, which was leaked and fueled outrage across the country, that the shooting shows the first shot was directed at the 25-year-old’s chest, second on his hand and third again hit his chest before the man collapsed on the ground. 

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Image Source: AP

(With agency inputs)