Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was killed in February 2020.
One day after the prosecution its case, one of the men charged in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery took the stand to testify. Travis McMichael, who shot Arbery in February 2020, walked the courtroom through his version of the minutes before the 25-year-old unarmed Black man was killed, calling it a “life-or-death situation.” McMichael said he was at his home with his son and his mother on February 23 when his father walked into the house and told him that a man they suspected of breaking into a house in their Georgia neighborhood earlier that month had just run past their house. McMichael had previously told the court that on February 11 he saw someone “lurking” and “creeping” around his neighbor’s house, which was under construction. McMichael had heard that some people were entering the house and that some things had been stolen. When McMichael went to confront this person, who he described as a Black man, the person appeared to reach into his waistband, leading McMichael to assume he may be armed. McMichael said he got back into his car and left the scene and the man entered the house. Surveillance video from the construction sight showed a man briefly walk through the house but not take anything. McMichael said he wasn’t sure the man his father saw on February 23 was the same he had seen a few weeks prior, but that he wanted to figure out what was going on.
