Travis McMichael
did have direct knowledge of what he thought was a crime in progress. His 911 call establishes that without a doubt.
LISTEN: 911 Dispatcher Doesn’t Understand What Arbery Is ‘Doing Wrong’
Travis: There's a guy in a house right now. There's a house under construction.
911 Dispatcher: do you have your address or the other — that house's address?
Travis: Uh, right at 219 or 220 Satilla Drive.
911 Dispatcher: And you say someone's breaking into it right now?
Travis: No, it's all open and it's under construction and he's running right now. There he goes right now.
911 Dispatcher: OK. What is he doing?
Travis: He's running down the street.
(Interference)
911 Dispatcher: OK. That's fine. I'll get them out there. I just need to know what he was doing wrong.
THIS is where the chain of events started, not with previous surveillance video that the McMichaels had never seen. They were surely aware that there had been crime in the neighborhood, and certainly Travis might have been influenced by his personal bias. But when this gets to trial the question isn’t going to be whether he had reasonable suspicion that a crime had occurred nor whether he was legally justified in pursuing - the question is going to be whether his specific actions were appropriate. They’re going to need to convince a jury that approaching their suspect was reasonable and that’s going to be a hard sell.