Jury gets virtual tour of scene where Ahmaud Arbery was shot, killed in day 1 of hate crimes trial

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Prosecutors began laying out their case as day 1 of the federal hate crimes trial of the men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery came to an end.

The say the trio shot and killed Arbery because he was Black.

Channel 2′s Tony Thomas has been in Brunswick since the trial started and has covered this case from the very beginning.

He was inside the courtroom Tuesday as Arbery’s father and the wife and mother of two of the defendants sat just feet apart.

Prosecutors showed the jury through videos and testimony what exactly happened to Arbery in the last few minutes of his life.

So far, there has been no direct mention of race, but everyone knows it’s coming.

“I’ll already know. I’m prepared for it,” Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery Sr. said.

Arbery Sr. told Thomas that he’s been preparing himself for weeks for the racial slurs and other comments he’ll soon be hearing in trial.

Greg McMichael, his son Travis and Roddie Bryan face federal hate crimes charges after already being convicted of murder in Arbery’s death.

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Jurors were given a tour of Arbery’s path that February Sunday through surveillance videos and a call to police from neighbor Matt Albenze.

Albenze spotted Arbery in a house under construction just before Arbery ran down the street.

Albanze called police, but video shows McMichaels and later Bryan chasing Arbery.

Prosecutors played the now famous cellphone video Bryan shot of the chase and shooting.

On the stand, Bobbi Bernstein asked Albenze, “Did you have any reason to believe he (Arbery) took anything?”

“No.,” Albenze replied.

Later, defense attorney AJ Balbo, trying to deflect allegations of racism, asked Albenze, “Would have made that same call no matter if it had been a white, black or Hispanic person?”

“That’s right,” Albenze replied.

The Arbery family believes race played a big role in Ahmaud’s killing.

“They were actually laying in wait for this man, because of his race,” said Barbara Arnwine with the Transformative Justice Coalition.

The defendants deny any racial overtones to Arbery’s death, saying they chased him simply because they thought he was responsible for some reported crimes in the neighborhood.

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