GLYNN COUNTY, Ga. — In newly-released police footage, Channel 2 Action News is getting a closer look at the moments following the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.
Channel 2′s Tony Thomas has been following the Arbery case and obtained police body camera videos from when officers first arrived on the scene on Feb. 23.
Prosecutors showed a judge snippets of the police video during a bond hearing last month where bond was denied for the suspects Greg McMichael, Travis McMichael and Roddie Bryan.
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Thomas asked for all of the video entered in evidence and received it this week. It is the best look so far at the scene where Arbery was killed and how quickly the suspects realized there was video of the incident.
Operator: “Dispatch to units. Hold all emergency traffic channel 2.”
Greg McMichael: “Travis, Roddie’s got it on film.”
Those are the first words you can hear suspect Greg McMichael saying as the first Glynn County police officer arrived on the scene.
Travis McMichael shot and killed Ahmaud Arbery after he and his father Greg chased the unarmed man through the neighborhood. One officer was just a block away when he heard the shots.
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The never-before-seen police body camera videos show officers questioning the McMichaels and Bryan.
“You have any other weapons or anything on you?” an officer asks Greg McMichael.
“Just that one. If he would stop. this wouldn’t have happened,” he responds.
“You a passerby coming through?” another officer asks Bryan in a different body camera video. “Not necessarily,” Bryan replies.
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Greg and Travis McMichael both told police they chased Arbery believing he had been breaking into a nearby construction site. Bryan admitted to following Arbery, blocking him in and recording the shooting on his cellphone.
Prosecutors charged all three men with murder. The defense claims the shooting was self-defense.
“I mean we were just this close to him. And he keeps on running,” Greg McMichael said. “So I grab my 357 magnum, Glynn County PD issued by the way.”
“Last thing I ever wanted to do in my life,” Travis McMichael said.
The videos also show some officers at the scene knew who Greg McMichael was. Prosecutors said the retired officer tried to obstruct the investigation by pointing out his background.
- First officer: “You know Greg?”
- Second officer: “No I don’t know him.”
- First officer: “Really? He was the chief investigator for the DA’s office.”
- Second officer: “This guy here?”
- First officer: “He just retired.”
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