Greg McMichael Told Investigators Ahmaud Arbery Was 'Trapped Like a Rat' Prior to Shooting

One of the three white defendants on trial in the death of Ahmaud Arbery said that they had the 25-year-old Black man "trapped like a rat" before the fatal shooting, a police officer testified Wednesday.

Greg McMichael and his adult son, Travis McMichael, later joined by neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan, armed themselves and then pursued Arbery through their Georgia neighborhood before Travis McMichael shot him with a shotgun on February 23, 2020, the Associated Press reported.

Glynn County Police Sgt. Roderic Nohilly read a transcript in court Wednesday of his recorded interview with Greg McMichael hours after the shooting occurred. He told Nohilly in the interview that he recognized Arbery from recordings captured on security cameras inside a neighborhood home under construction. He and his son began chasing him to prevent him from leaving the area, Greg McMichael said.

Defense attorneys have been arguing that the McMichaels' and Bryan's pursuit and efforts to detain Arbery were legally just because they believed he was a burglar. Greg McMichael told police that Travis McMichael only fired at Arbery in self-defense after he attacked them with his fists and attempted to grab the shotgun that killed him.

After joining the pursuit, Bryan used his truck to cut off Arbery several times and edge him off the road, testified Stephan Lowrey, the lead Glynn County police investigator for the case.

Lowrey said that Bryan denied hitting Arbery with his truck, though police found his fingerprints on the truck's driver-side door next to a dent in the vehicle's body. Bryan said that he wished he'd hit Arbery because it "might have took him out and not get him shot," according to an interview transcript read in court by Lowrey.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

Prosecutors say the McMichaels and Bryan chased Arbery for five minutes before he was shot in the street after running past the McMichaels' idling truck. Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski has described him as an "avid runner" who lived about 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the Satilla Shores neighborhood where he was slain.

Bryan's attorney, Kevin Gough, asked Lowrey if he thought Bryan committed aggravated assault or any other "serious violent felony" with his truck.

"No, that wasn't the way I interpreted it at the time," said Lowrey, who agreed that local police considered Bryan a witness to the shooting.

Glynn County police made no arrests in Arbery's shooting. But Lowrey said he hadn't closed the case when the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took it over in May.

"It was still open but not getting much traction," Lowrey said. He added: "I think inactive was a fair summary."

The Rev. Al Sharpton spoke with reporters Wednesday outside the Glynn County courthouse, where he held the hands of Arbery's parents while leading a prayer for justice. Sharpton criticized the disproportionately white makeup of the jury.

Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley allowed the jury to be sworn in last week after prosecutors objected, saying several Black potential jurors were excluded because of their race, leaving only one Black juror on the panel of 12. The county where the trial is being held is nearly 27 percent Black.

"It's an insult to the intelligence of the American people," Sharpton said. "If you can count to 12 and only get to one that's Black, you know something's wrong."

In court, another neighbor, Matthew Albenze, testified he was splitting logs in his front yard on the day of the shooting when he saw Arbery enter the home under construction across the street.

Albenze testified Wednesday that he went inside his house and put a handgun in his pocket before he called police from behind a tree at the curb. Arbery left the house running toward the McMichaels' home while Albenze was on the phone.

Albenze told the jury he called the police nonemergency number. Dunikoski asked him: Why not 911?

He replied: "I did not see an emergency."

On the witness stand Wednesday, Nohilly pushed back as one of Greg McMichael's attorneys asked if raising a gun would be an appropriate response to a fleeing suspect who refused verbal commands to stop.

"You'll sometimes draw your weapon, won't you?" attorney Franklin Hogue asked.

Nohilly replied: "I don't just pull my gun."

Hogue then asked: "At some point, if the person is going to attack you, you'll go ahead and use your weapon."

"It depends on how he's attacking me," Nohilly said.

Hogue then asked him what if the attacker is trying to take his gun away.

"At that point it might meet the threshold, yes," the police sergeant said.

Update 11/10/21, 4:50 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional testimony.