BRUNSWICK, Ga. — A police officer testified Friday he planned to give Ahmaud Arbery a trespass warning for repeatedly entering a home under construction before the 25-year-old Black man was chased and shot dead by neighbors who spotted him running from the property.
Glynn County police Officer Robert Rash said he spoke several times to the house’s owner, who sent him videos showing Arbery visiting the site several times between Oct. 25, 2019, and Feb. 23, 2020 — the day Arbery was killed at the end of a five-minute chase by white men in pickup trucks.
Rash said he had been looking for Arbery, whose identity was unknown at the time, to tell him to keep away from the unfinished home. He said police had a standard protocol for handling people caught trespassing — a misdemeanor under Georgia law.
“Once we make contact with the person on the property, we explain to them the homeowner does not want them there, they have no legal reason to be there,” Rash said. He added: “I explain to that person, if you ever come back onto this property for any reason, you will be arrested.”
Arbery was killed before the officer could find him.
Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael armed themselves and pursued Arbery in a truck after he ran past their home five doors down from the construction site on a Sunday afternoon. A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, joined the chase in his own truck and took cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery three times with a shotgun.
More than two months passed before the three men were arrested on murder and other charges, after the graphic video leaked online and deepened a national reckoning over racial injustice.
All three men are standing trial at the Glynn County courthouse in coastal Brunswick. Defense attorneys say the men reasonably suspected Arbery was a burglar and were trying to hold him for police. They say Travis McMichael, 35, fired his gun in self-defense when Arbery attacked with his fists.
Larry English, who owns the unfinished home, has said there was no evidence Arbery stole anything from the site. Still, he said he was concerned that the same person kept coming in the house after dark.
A patrol officer assigned to the neighborhood, Rash said he was trying to track down the young man with tattoos and short twists in his hair who had been recorded inside English’s house. He shared the clips with neighbors, including Greg McMichael, 65.