Medieval Justice in Modern Day Georgia

A Closer Look at the Railroading of Greg and Travis McMichael

As I have reported here before, father Greg and son Travis McMichael are serving life without parole for their roles in the February 2020 shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery. This case haunts me. I have covered more than a few controversial cases, but I have not seen an injustice this profound in modern day America.

Two new sources of information confirm my suspicions. One is a detailed case description recently submitted by Travis. The second is a letter summarizing the case sent by George Barnhill, District Attorney for the Waycross Judicial Circuit. Barnhill sent the letter to the Glynn County Police Department in April 2020, shortly before his office was removed from the case at the instigation of Arbery’s mother. The abridged summary that follows fuses the two accounts.

TM—On February 23, 2020, around 1 PM, I had just sat down in a recliner. I was trying to coax my three-year-old son to take a nap when my father Greg came running through the kitchen door and shouted, “that guy that was in the house the other night just ran by, and he was hauling ass.” I was aware of who and what he was referring to, and aware of the possible reasons as to why this person, if he was in fact the person my father suspected, was running past our house into the neighborhood instead of out of the neighborhood.

TM—On Feb 11th, twelve days earlier, I left my house after dark to gas up my car. I worked at Kings Bay. Naval Submarine Base, and I did not want to stop at 4 am to get gas on my way to work. As I was driving towards the entrance of the neighborhood, I encountered a man, who we now know as Ahmaud Arbery, running out of the neighbor’s yard across the road. He was one house down from my location and crossed in front of my vehicle. He went all the way up to the shrubs adjacent to the house which was 50 feet from the road.

TM—He was skulking from shadow to shadow in a clear attempt to hide. I put my headlights toward his direction and once he was in the light, he casually walked out from the shrubs and walked into Mr. English’s property where Mr. English was constructing a house. I kept my vehicle lights on him as he crossed onto the Mr. English’s property.

TM—He started to walk towards me and the road, so I started to get out of my car to ask him what he was doing. As soon as I got out of the car, Mr. Arbery, now halfway between the road and Mr. English’s house under construction, reached into his waistband as if reaching for a gun. I jumped back into my car and went back home to get away from a potentially dangerous situation and to call the police.

TM—Mr. English had told neighbors that expensive gear was taken from a boat inside the garage on the property. A single mother, who lives across the street from the property, reported that her children encountered the man and it scared them enough to stay inside after dark. There were several auto break-ins throughout the neighborhood occurring during this time as well. I was a victim of these ongoing occurrences several times….New Year’s Day, 2020, my truck was broke into and one of my pistols was stolen. I made a police report, and the pistol is still missing.

TM—Mr. English sent pictures and videos of Mr. Arbery in the house that night, the 11th of February, with several other pictures and videos of him on Mr. English’s dock behind the house, inside the house, and on the property on different occasions to the police officer on the scene. The officer showed the images and videos to me and another neighbor who was present and who had encountered Mr. Arbery before. I was able to identify him as the same guy.

TM—[On February 23, 2020] Once my father came through the kitchen door telling me that the guy from the other night ran by, I grabbed the most accessible firearm I had at the time, which was one of my shotguns. I had cleaned it the night before and had not put it back into the gun safe. I went outside and got into my truck and my father got into the passenger side.

TM—As I pulled onto the street, I saw a neighbor in my rearview mirror with what looked like a phone in his hand and pointing down the road. He was in front of the English property. This was the same neighbor who was at the English property on Feb. 11.

TM—I drove up alongside [Arbery] to see if it was the same guy from the 11th. I saw that it was, so I pulled up next to him without any words exchanged. He turn and started running back so I went in reverse to stay with him, and he changed directions again. When he did this, I was concerned that something indeed did happen down the street. There would be no reason to flee from someone otherwise.

TM—At this point, I told my father to call 911 because it was in fact the same guy. I drove up to him again further down Burford and asked him to stop and that I just wanted to talk to him. He finally stopped. I put the truck in park. He never said a word and his facial expression was rage, not annoyance, confusion, or fear which seemed alarming and odd to me.

TM—I asked him what happened down the road and why was there a neighbor pointing at him while on the phone. He never spoke. I told him the police were on the way. as soon as I said that he bolted back down Burford Road towards Satilla Drive from which he came. At that time, I decided to stay where I was because it seemed to me. Mr. Arbery was not acting normally. He was going towards the entrance of the neighborhood where the police would certainly intercept him.

GB—It appears Travis McMichael. Greg McMichael, and [neighbor Roddie] Bryan were following in pursuit burglary suspect, with solid first hand probable cause, in their neighborhood, and asking / telling him to stop. It appears their intent was to stop and hold this criminal suspect until law enforcement arrived. Under Georgia Law this is perfectly legal.

TM—I looked back down Burford Rd., and I saw a black pickup truck in the middle of the road and Mr. Arbery on the driver’s side. It looked as if he was trying to open the driver’s door. He was banging on the window while the truck was in motion. It was moving away from us towards the intersection on Burford and Satilla Dr. My father witnessed this as well and wanted me to go down there to keep Mr. Arbery from getting into the vehicle, I told him that I’m not going near that guy because he seemed out of his mind and desperate.

TM—Once I completed my turn onto Holmes. I continued down Holmes and when I got to the dog leg, I witnessed Mr. Arbery attacking the same black truck I witnessed earlier….I stopped in my lane on Holmes Dr. as they came closer. It was apparent neither Mr. Arbery Nor the driver were aware I was there because the truck was heading straight towards me in my lane and Mr. Arbery’s attention was on prying and hitting the driver door and mirror.

TM—I had my truck in park. This was the position that was on the video that Mr. Bryan recorded of the tragedy that was about to unfold. I was out of the truck on the inside of my opened driver door. My father was sitting on the toolbox. I asked him when the police were going to show up. He stated that he hadn’t called 911 yet because he had dropped my phone. I climbed back into my truck to get my phone and as I was climbing out, I saw Mr. Arbery coming around the dog’s leg running towards us and the truck.

GB—It clearly appears Travis McMichael and Greg McMichael had firearms being carried in an open fashion. The investigation shows neither of them to be convicted felons or under felony supervision, they were in a motor vehicle owned by Travis McMichael. Under Georgia Law this is legal open carry .

TM—I yelled at him to stop, and he kept coming directly towards the truck. I yelled twice more and was afraid that he may try to carjack us and attempt to flee like he had done with the black truck, so I pulled my shotgun off the seat for Mr. Aubrey to see and to be ready if I need to protect myself.

GB—The video made by [Roddie] Bryan clearly shows the shooting in real time. From said video it appears Ahmaud Arbery was running along the right side of the McMichael truck then abruptly turns 90 degrees to the left and attacks Travis McMichael who was standing at the front left corner of the truck.

TM—As soon as I got to the front of the truck, Mr. Arbery came around the passenger side of the truck, grabbed my shotgun and started to strike me on the head. At that time, I was afraid of losing possession of my gun or being knocked out. My years of weapons retention training and use of force as a boarding officer in the United States Coast Guard kicked in and I shot and tried to pull the shotgun away from Mr. Arbery.

GB—A brief skirmish ensues in which it appear Arbery strikes McMichael and appears to grab the shotgun and pull it from McMichael. The shot is through Arbery’s right hand palm which is consistent with him grabbing and pulling the shotgun at the barrel tip, the 2nd and 3rd wounds are consistent with the struggle for the shotgun as depicted in the video, the angle of the 2nd shot with the rear of the butt stock being pushed away and down from the fight are also consistent with the upward angle of blood plume shown in the video and that McMichael was attempting to push the gun away from Arbery while Arbery was pulling it toward himself. The 3rd shot too appears to be in a struggle over the gun.

TM—I was in a state of shock and at this point I realized that he had just collapsed, and I started to get back to my truck thinking that I needed to check on my father and check myself. My father came running up shouting that Mr. Arbery’s reaching in his pocket, so I ran up to Mr. Arbery to grab his hands and realize that he had passed away. At that moment the first officer on the scene arrived so I dropped my shotgun and complied and cooperated with the police and investigators at the scene.

GB—The angle of the shots and the video show this was from the beginning or almost immediately became -- a fight over the shotgun. Given the fact Arbery initiated the fight, at the point Arbery grabbed the shotgun, under Georgia Law, McMichael was allowed to use deadly force to protect himself.

GB—Just as importantly, while we know McMichael had his finger on the trigger, we do not know who caused the firings. Arbery would only had to pull the shotgun approximately 1/16th to 1/8th of one inch to fire weapon himself and in the height of an altercation this is entirely possible. Arbery’s mental health records & prior convictions help explain his apparent aggressive nature and his possible thought pattern to attack an armed man.

GB—For the above and foregoing reasons, it is our conclusion there is insufficient probable cause to issue arrest warrants at this time….Myself and one of my Senior Trial Attorneys have reviewed the evidence extensively and concur on all points.

In the State of Georgia show trial that began in November 2021, just months after Derek Chauvin’s trial ended in Minneapolis, prosecutors subtracted evidence but added nothing new. The McMichaels, father and son, were convicted aad sentenced to life without parole in a Georgia state prison. Bryan, who never left his truck, got life as well but “with parole.”

For those interested in learning more about the case, the McMichael family website is https://mcmichaeltrial.com. The family has a give send go account to help defray legal fees