GA - Ahmaud Arbery, 25, jogger, fatally shot by former PD and son, Brunswick, Feb 2020

[tlcya]

News4Jax submitted a records request to the Waycross District Attorney, in response Barnhill said “It would be highly improper under Georgia Law, Rules of Court, and Bar rules for us to issue any comments. Everyone needs to let the criminal justice system work. When it’s done all the evidence will be released.”

What we know about the deadly shooting of Ahmaud Arbery

NOW Banhill is concerned about protocol and being proper

 

[tlcya]

In a strongly worded statement over the weekend, the National District Attorneys Association took particular issue with George Barnhill’s issuing a detailed letter exonerating the McMichaels on April 3 after he had concluded that he had a conflict of interest in the case. The association has 5,500 members and represents two-thirds of state and local prosecutors’ offices.

“We must strongly disagree with District Attorney George Barnhill’s decision to share his opinion of whether Greg and Travis McMichael should be arrested after he decided to recuse himself from the case,” the association said.

US district attorneys condemn recused prosecutor in Ahmaud Arbery case

 

[Hope4More]

That sounds like a fiction to me. What first hand knowledge did GM have?

I think I'm not explaining very well what I think was Barnhill's sleight of hand with legal terms.

Essentially, what Barnhill said was that MM had justification enough to pursue and detain AA (note that he doesn't say the MMs were in fact TRYING to make a citizens arrest).

Barnhill's rationalization was that it was sufficient for MM to BELIEVE that AA was a "criminal suspect," because (presumably) MM had viewed E's surveillance tapes, "witnessed" someone trespassing on E's property, appropriately or at least understandably interpreted that trespass as burglary, which is a felony, and reasonably or at least understandably identified AA as that trespasser. Hence " first hand PROBABLE CAUSE."

Barnhill simply ignores/omits/creatively interprets the part of the law requiring that MM have "immediate knowledge" of the alleged burglary (ies).

And he just plain ignores the legal requirement that if the criminal offense is a felony, though MM need not have witnessed the felony first hand, in order to give pursuit , the felony needed to have been happened, bare minimum, just recently ago (minutes, hours, a day), not MONTHS prior.

 

[zencompass]

Here's the incident report drawn up by the Glynn County PD.

https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/6915-arbery-shooting/b52fa09cdc974b970b79/optimized/full.pdf

There are a few things that stand out for me. Firstly, is that GM states his home address is 200 River Ridge Rd about 10.5 miles and a 15 minute drive to Satilla Drive.

Second is that there are incidents linked to this crime, two Trespassing incidences that occurred on Feb 24, the day after AA died and an Auto Theft incident that occurred on Mar 4.

Third, is that the explanation that GM gives doesn't jibe with William Bryan's statement regarding the incident.

And forth, their offered times lines of seeing AA on the street, 'recognizing' him as the guy in the video, running into their house to get their weapons (in case he was armed), go back outside, get in the truck, drive to the intersection of Holmes and Satilla, see AA on Burford, drive down Burford to cut him off, then when AA turns to go back the way he came, the turn the truck around and go after him again as AA retraces his steps. That's when he says Roddy tried to block AA.

When I see the video, both Roddy's truck and the MM truck are facing the same direction.

Between the time AA left the construction site and the the first cop car arriving to scene about 6 minutes elapsed. I can't see all that happening in 6 minutes. A white truck that appears to be in front of the TM residence leaves about a minute after AA leaves the construction site.

Great catch about the address of GM! I thought he lived on Satilla Drive.

Looks like they were at Travis' home (report shows his address as Satilla Drive).

 

[Hope4More]

I strongly suspect we will learn that GM's probable cause amounts to posts in a neighborhood Facebook group. SMDH

Yep. And possibly those E videos dating back to Oct and November 2019.

 

[Gardenista]

Father and son 'had a confrontation with Ahmaud Arbery two weeks before he was shot' | Daily Mail Online

 

[sds71]

• Arbery shot dead by Travis McMichael, 34, on February 23 in Brunswick, Georgia
• Gregory, 64, watched from truck with his own gun
• Both men are being held in separate wing of the Glynn County Detention Center
• They are eating alone and exercising while being kept away from other prisonersTMZ also claims that there are no TVs in the section of the jail where the men are being housed, so they cannot follow the case in the news. Glynn County Undersheriff Ron Corbett revealed the details to the outlet but refused to say whether or not the men were on suicide watch or if their lives have been threatened.

Father and son accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery 'are isolated away from other prisoners' | Daily Mail Online

 

[zencompass]

Unless that mob includes McMichaels supporters...

Dear Reasonable & Just,

I thought the threats have been coming from supporters of the McMichaels because it wasn't until the video went public that the pressure for arrests of the McMichaels became momentous.

Many people take the view that it was the video which Mr. Bryan took that led to the eventual arrests of the McMichaels. That's why I've always thought that the threats came from McMichael supporters.

Just my opinion.

 

[branmuffin]

Great catch about the address of GM! I thought he lived on Satilla Drive.

Looks like they were at Travis' home (report shows his address as Satilla Drive).

Except that BM has repeatedly stated that he lives on Satilla Dr. So there's a couple of things maybe going on here. 1) That it may have been his home and he sold it to his son. 2) His wife and he are separated and he's temporarily living with his son 3) He still owns the home and rents it to his son 4) He never, in his wildest dreams, thought he'd be scrutinized as a neighborhood watch kind of a guy when he didnt actually live in the neighborhood.

 

[Reasonable & Just]

Dear Reasonable & Just,

I thought the threats have been coming from supporters of the McMichaels because it wasn't until the video went public that the pressure for arrests of the McMichaels became momentous.

Many people take the view that it was the video which Mr. Bryan took that led to the eventual arrests of the McMichaels. That's why I've always thought that the threats came from McMichael supporters.

Just my opinion.

That's what I was thinking, too...

 

[branmuffin]

I think I'm not explaining very well what I think was Barnhill's sleight of hand with legal terms.

Essentially, what Barnhill said was that MM had justification enough to pursue and detain AA (note that he doesn't say the MMs were in fact TRYING to make a citizens arrest).

Barnhill's rationalization was that it was sufficient for MM to BELIEVE that AA was a "criminal suspect," because (presumably) MM had viewed E's surveillance tapes, "witnessed" someone trespassing on E's property, appropriately or at least understandably interpreted that trespass as burglary, which is a felony, and reasonably or at least understandably identified AA as that trespasser. Hence " first hand PROBABLE CAUSE."

Barnhill simply ignores/omits/creatively interprets the part of the law requiring that MM have "immediate knowledge" of the alleged burglary (ies).

And he just plain ignores the legal requirement that if the criminal offense is a felony, though MM need not have witnessed the felony first hand, in order to give pursuit , the felony needed to have been happened, bare minimum, just recently ago (minutes, hours, a day), not MONTHS prior.

Last point very important.

 

[tlcya]

Father and son 'had a confrontation with Ahmaud Arbery two weeks before he was shot' | Daily Mail Online

so now we get a little more info on the circumstances we read about in the incident report released re the day of the shooting re: the Ms saying they saw him fiddling with his waistband and were worried maybe AA had a gun.
----------
Now neighbor Diego Perez says the two men had already approached their victim on February 11, after spotting him at the same construction site Arbery is thought to have looked round on the day of his death.

Perez told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 'Travis saw him in the yard and Travis stopped. He confronted (the man) halfway into the yard. He said (the man) reached for his waistband, and Travis got spooked and went down the road.'

Travis is said to have returned with his father, who was armed and who had called the local police.

-------------
From the Daily Mail's source article at Atlanta J-C:

Diego Perez accompanied Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis McMichael, 34, on the Feb. 11 search and was at the shooting scene immediately after Arbery was shot on Feb. 23. Perez said he recognized Arbery as the man they had confronted earlier.

[SNIP]

The Feb. 11 encounter had been prompted by a motion-sensor security camera video in the construction site that had pinged the property owner who was two hours away. The owner, Larry English, texted the video to Perez, who lived near the construction site.

Perez, who has spoken to the GBI, had offered to keep watch, and told English he’d be happy to check on the property any time. English told the AJC that he did not know the McMichaels or provide them with any camera footage. Nothing was taken from his property, he said.
Suspects in Arbery shooting had earlier neighborhood confrontation

 

[Reasonable & Just]

Father and son 'had a confrontation with Ahmaud Arbery two weeks before he was shot' | Daily Mail Online

Sounds like they were authoritarian bullies looking for a violent confrontation on the day of the shooting, then... They had other choices. One of them would have been leaving the weapon in the vehicle. But the better one would have been leaving it to the actual LEOs and not harassing this man who hadn't done more than trespass.

 

[SharonNeedles]

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.

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

NM

 

[tlcya]

Sounds like they were authoritarian bullies looking for a violent confrontation on the day of the shooting, then... They had other choices. One of them would have been leaving the weapon in the vehicle. But the better one would have been leaving it to the actual LEOs and not harassing this man who hadn't done more than trespass.

seems like he had issues with authority himself MOO

Another comment on the same evaluation under interpersonal relations with supervisors reads that he "finds it hard sometimes to accept criticism on certain subjects." However, under strengths, it notes once again that as an officer with more experience, "McMichael will make an officer that this department will be proud of."

In the employee comments, McMichael noted that he felt the comments from his supervisor weren't valid " due to supervisor not having sufficient knowledge of my work habits."
A look at Gregory McMichael's police officer personnel file

 

[Hope4More]

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.

It's only possible to believe that if you don't believe that someone other than Travis has identified himself as that 911 caller, AND that MM lied about being the one who first identified AA that day, then ran inside, where Travis was, to tell him to get a gun & go.

 

[firebird]

Sounds like they were authoritarian bullies looking for a violent confrontation on the day of the shooting, then... They had other choices. One of them would have been leaving the weapon in the vehicle. But the better one would have been leaving it to the actual LEOs and not harassing this man who hadn't done more than trespass.

To me it sounds like they were concerned neighborhood residents confronting a person whom they knew to have a history of crime, including theft and carrying a hand gun, who repeatedly creeped their neighborhood. Jmo

 

[branmuffin]

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.

I don't think that is TM on the phone. It's the guy we see in the security camera that records AA entering 220 Satilla Dr. I believe the person on the phone is standing across the street as AA looks around the construction site.

How could TM be on the phone witnessing a trespass when his home was 5 doors down?

 

[Cryptic]

But the better one would have been leaving it to the actual LEOs and not harassing this man who hadn't done more than trespass.

I agree, simply calling the police would have been the far better option.

I , however, disagree with the blanket term of "harassment".

If I trespass enough times (especially into a home under construction that is increasing becoming a finished home), I will probably get "harassed" at some point by somebody. As to whether or not killing me is justified is a different matter.

In short, the term "harassment" seems to imply that AA had an inherent right to enter the home and that anybody advising him to stop was some how being unreasonable.

Advising and expecting AA to stop trespassing was not "harassment" and not unreasonable- especially in states like Georgia. What was unreasonable was killing him over it.