ATLANTA — A Georgia investigator testified on Thursday that one of the three white defendants accused of chasing down and killing Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was running in a South Georgia neighborhood, heard another defendant use a racist slur moments after firing the shotgun blasts that ended Mr. Arbery’s life.
The explosive revelation, suggesting overt racism was at play in the case, came in a hearing in Brunswick, Ga., that ended with Judge Wallace E. Harrell of Glynn County Magistrate Court determining that sufficient probable cause existed to support the murder charges brought against the three men.
There were several fiery moments in the hearing. At one point, after a lawyer for one defendant referred to the Book of Amos, the special prosecutor Jesse Evans cited another Bible verse.
“I’ve got one,” he said. “What about ‘Love thy neighbor’?” The three defendants, Mr. Evans said, had hunted down a “defenseless” man. “He was tormented, he was hunted, he was targeted,” Mr. Evans said.
The hearing brought fresh attention to Mr. Arbery’s case, one of several recent incidents of violence against black people that have convulsed much of the United States in sustained protest over racial inequities in the justice system. As significant details of Mr. Arbery’s case were being revealed, a somber memorial service was being held in Minneapolis for George Floyd, a black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
A federal civil rights probe into Mr. Floyd’s death was announced last Friday by Attorney General William P. Barr. Lawyers for Mr. Arbery’s family have said that a federal civil rights probe into the Arbery case is also underway.
In an interview on Thursday, L. Chris Stewart, the lawyer for Mr. Arbery’s mother, said the revelation of the racist language should be enough to trigger indictments under the federal hate crimes statute.
“This is the proof they need to actually bring charges,” he said.
Outside the courthouse in Brunswick, protesters gathered to call for justice for Mr. Arbery. Inside, some of the participants wore masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The hearing largely focused on testimony from Richard Dial, an assistant special agent in charge for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the lead agent in the case. Mr. Dial said Travis McMichael, 34, who prosecutors say shot Mr. Arbery three times with a shotgun, was overheard using a racist epithet by William Bryan, a neighbor who has also been charged.
Mr. Dial said Mr. Bryan was also involved in the pursuit and tried to stop Mr. Arbery with his vehicle several times.
The chase began in the early afternoon of Feb. 23, when Mr. McMichael’s father, Gregory McMichael, 64, saw Mr. Arbery running in the Satilla Shores neighborhood just outside of Brunswick, and suspected that Mr. Arbery was the perpetrator of a series of break-ins. Both the father and son armed themselves, got into a pickup truck and began chasing Mr. Arbery.
The culmination of the chase was a physical fight between Mr. Arbery and Travis McMichael that was captured on video by Mr. Bryan, who pulled up to the scene in his truck. The video shows Mr. Arbery running toward the McMichaels before swerving around their pickup truck in an apparent effort to avoid Travis McMichael, who was standing outside with his shotgun.
Then the two men clashed in front of the truck. Mr. Arbery was shot three times by Travis McMichael as Gregory McMichael watched from the truck bed.
The elder McMichael, a retired investigator in the local district attorney’s office, and his son, were arrested on May 7. Each was charged with murder and aggravated assault. Mr. Bryan was arrested on May 21 on charges of felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.
The three men remain in Glynn County jail and have not entered a plea in the case. The McMichaels appeared in the courtroom via a video feed.
Mr. Dial said that Travis McMichael had used racial epithets numerous times in past social media posts and text messages. Mr. Dial said that in one instance, Mr. McMichael, who runs a tour boat company, said he appreciated working on the water because there were no black people there. In another instance, Mr. Dial said that Mr. McMichael, responding to a video posted to social media, said it would have been better if someone had “blown” a black person’s “head off.”
Mr. Dial also said that Mr. McMichael had a Confederate flag sticker on the toolbox of his truck. And he said that Mr. Bryan also used racial epithets in text messages unrelated to the shooting.
Moments before he was chased, Mr. Arbery visited a house in the neighborhood that was under construction, as he had numerous times before. It remains unclear why he did so, but Mr. Dial said there was no evidence he stole anything. Mr. Dial also revealed, under questioning, that Mr. Arbery had a mental illness that caused him to have “auditory hallucinations.” He said Mr. Arbery was not being treated for that illness on the day he was killed.
Much of Mr. Dial’s time on the stand involved discussions about the minute details of the pursuit. Mr. Dial said that Mr. Bryan had stated to officials that Mr. Arbery was forced into a ditch as he tried to avoid Mr. Bryan’s truck, and at one point appeared to try to open the passenger-side door after Mr. Bryan had used his truck to try to block Mr. Arbery’s escape.
Lawyers for all three men argued that the charges against their clients should be dropped. Mr. Bryan’s lawyer, Kevin Gough, said it was impossible to show that his client knew that the McMichaels were “acting wrongfully.” Jason Sheffield, a lawyer for Travis McMichael, argued that his client was acting in self-defense after Mr. Arbery attacked him.
Franklin Hogue, a lawyer for Gregory McMichael, said that while “we might agree” that his client leaving the house with a firearm “may not have been a very good idea,” he had a legitimate reason to want to “intercept” someone he thought may have committed a crime.
The case has been handled by four district attorneys, and state investigators are looking into whether it was mishandled by the first two of them, Jackie Johnson of Brunswick, and George E. Barnhill of Waycross, Ga. Mr. Barnhill, soon after the shooting, advised local police that probable cause did not exist to charge anyone in the case, and no one was arrested for weeks.
Andrea Young, executive director of the A.C.L.U. of Georgia, said in a statement on Thursday that the hearing showed that the two prosecutors were “unfit for their offices,” and called on them to resign.
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