20/20 - True Crime Vault: Nowhere to Run: The Ahmaud Arbery Story

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

Ahmaud Arbery's mother discusses her mission to find truth and justice after the tragedy that changed their lives forever. (Originally broadcast 11/26/21) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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where you'll hear our most gripping stories. Did that make any sense to you that your son would be committing a burglary? My mom wasn't burglarizing anything. My mom was just running. I've been told lies. And now the verdict is in. I understand you have reached a verdict.

The murder of Amad Arbery shocked the conscience of the nation. Now, please! But there's so much more to this story. that you've never heard before. Greg McMichael and Travis McMichael chased this young man in the street and hunted him down

and shot him. As soon as he says that, they begin to take everything that he says face value. No, put him cups on you. No, no, no. No. No. No. Why don't you need a cubs? The video changed everything. Just 36 seconds of grainy video.

You're now dealing with the whole world watching. There's nothing else I can do. Just don't look. You should. I mean, it's shocking me. Anyone who saw that video, their reaction was, good God. This is a lynching.

Did you think that you would be able to get justice as a black woman in a small Georgia town? I promised him that I would find out what happened. Am I would go out, He just loved running past the oak trees and the pine trees. He liked it because it was peaceful. He was at home when he ran. He just loved smelling the sea salt as he ran.

If it wasn't drenching in rain, Amma would be running. Ahmaud Arbery was Wanda. Ahmaud Arbery was Wanda Cooper Jones and Marcus Arbery Senior's third child. They had an older son, Marcus Jr., and they also had a daughter, Jasmine. Amad was the baby. I had Ahmaud, no Mother's Day. I knew Amad would be the last one, though I cherished Amad.

And he was your Mother's Day gift? Yes. We shared a very special bond. Amad was the kid that would come in and give me a kiss on the cheek. me a kiss on the cheek or just come in and give me a hug around the neck. In a day past by, he ain't gonna tell you that you love you. And he didn't just tell you that, he showed that. He was a funny guy, always wanted to keep people laughing.

We all be joked out and he'll be right in the center of it, making us laugh. Right or wrong, if you're his family, he'll stick with you beside you. He was a great kick. When he knew I was having a bad day, he would come in and said something that he thought was funny to get me to smile. His goal was to make me happy. make me happy and he did that we don't take any time for granted at this point the last time we saw life was pretty tough for Wanda she was a primary

caregiver raising three children and often working two jobs I constantly accent was being a mom to three and raising it on your own was it tiring she would tell me all the time that was one of the best roles she had ever played The family lived in Brunswick, a small town in the southeast corner of Georgia. Brunswick is an idealic town if you want to live near water and off the coast. It's very tropical, and you got three islands that are nearby. There's only a little more than 16,000 people in Brunswick, so it is a small southern town. One, two, three, oh!

Ahmaud wasn't just a casual runner. He was a natural-born athlete. He loved sports, basketball, boxing. But I think Amad's particular love of football was something that was extraordinary. Amad started playing football when he was about five. It's the South, so sports in the South is crazy. Just listen to the energy at the football stadium

where Amad once played. You go to a high school game right now, the whole city come out, you know, football is very important now now. It's nothing like it. At Brunswick High, Amad was known as a hard hitter and a mighty linebacker. Once they put him in the game, it's hard over tuck it. overtook it. It really scared me because he wasn't that big, but when I seen him play, I said, wow, his heart big in his size. A lot of young people who have less opportunity see sports as a way to achieve not only material success, but also I think to have a sense of identity and the adoration of the people that you grew up with.

It's a path of something different and peace, and it's a way to let yourself be free. He was on a mission. He knew what he wanted out of life. He wanted to buy a plot of land and build houses with him and his best friends so they could all live close together and raise their families together. As kids, Amad and his older brother, Marcus Jr., would sometimes fantasize about what life would be like outside of Brunswick. Every day we dream about playing in the NFL. They wanted one of them to sign a big kid. multi-million dollar NFL contract.

One of us going to have to go to the NFL. One of us going to make Mama Rich. And they were going to buy Wanda a nice big house. This wasn't exactly a far-fetched dream. Three former players from the Brunswick Pirates actually went on to play for the NFL, including Amad's cousin, Tracy Walker, who plays for the Detroit Lions. Intercepted by Tracy Walker.

And Darius Slay the Third, who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles. Intercepting! While Darius and Tracy went on to play football and ultimately to the NFL, it didn't happen for Amad. When he finished high school, he didn't have any college football offers. He was a small linebacker, and the colleges just didn't want someone that size playing that position. I told him you young. You still got a chance to do anything in this world you want. After graduation, Amad moved out and went to ten.

and went to technical college. He was hoping to become an electrician. Once the dream of football faded, it was harder to focus on school. So he came home and he started working and I think he was really trying to figure out what else he was going to do with his life. So he eventually left college

and came back home to live with your mom. What didn't he go back? A change of thought, maybe. Maybe this is not what I want to do. And he started working and making a living making a living for himself. I guess he got used to making money and I'm tired of being a broke college student.

Was he sort of the man of the house in some ways? He was. Ahmaud helped me in so many ways, not for his financially but emotionally as well. Amma didn't realize how much I was actually depending on him at that point. I met him at my first job. It was at McDonald's.

He had like this smooth skin, it's nice, We complimented each other. He loved his girlfriend, and he was really shy when he first met her. We literally just clicked. He played sports. I played sports. He came to my house.

We're working out together. We're eating together. We're looking at movies together. My friends could not catch me at that point. Like, they knew when I was with my idol, there was just no way she needs to not going anywhere at that point. Later into the relationship, he loved her so much that he would record their phone calls just so he could listen to her voice. voice. Wanda became concerned after her son dropped out of college and came back home.

There were changes in his behavior. He's now at home. Was he struggling with that decision in where he was in his life? Returning home at that age after being away, I think it did take a toll of him. When Ahmad came home and went to a high school basketball game, he had a firearm on him, he He was arrested. After Ahmaud was caught with that gun, he was put on probation, and later he was arrested a second time for shoplifting. My brother was no angel, but he was my angel.

He'd made mistakes like everyone does, and I think was trying to get his life back on track. He was not sent to jail. Maude's crimes were not violent crimes. Wanda noticed that her youngest son didn't seem to be himself. I was concerned because he had lost his life. Because he had lost his motivation. He wasn't talking as much. I just had concerns as a mother.

And my job as mom was to stick beside him. Did you lose faith in him? No, ma'am. Amma was the baby. Amma was still my son. Amma still was a brother. No. Never.

My cell phone rang. When I heard Glen County Police Department, I knew it was something wrong. How wrong it was, I didn't know. I had traveled to Dallas, Westman Training. And when I left Ahmad, I went to his room. I told Amman I was leaving. So I'll be back in a couple of days.

And I said, I love you. And his last word said me was, I love you. Four days later, when she's on her way home from Texas, Wanda gets a phone call from the local police. He said Ahmad was committing a burglary. He was confronted with him. In that confrontation, there was a struggle over the firearm, and Ahmad was killed.

Did that make any sense to you that your son would be committing a burglary? No, ma'am. No, no sense at all. She was unwilling to accept that information because she knew that what she was being told was not the character of her son. That's not him.

I knew that wasn't him. So nobody was satisfied with this idea that he was shot and killed during a burglary. No. My brothers wanted to trust for these people that I know. I didn't believe it. I remember picking out a casket from my little brother, what he'll wear, what would be in his obituary. Things like that, I never thought I lived on it at such a young age.

As a young mom, I used to say I couldn't, I didn't imagine life without my children. And now that day had came. It was one of the hardest days of my life. Really like this wreath, because it has his name and brought it on it. You said something to your son at the funeral. I promised him that I would find out what happened. They had told me that he had burglarized something. And I know that he hadn't did that.

And Ahmad knew the type of mom. the type of mom I was, that I was going to find out what happened. He knew that. The day that we laid a mar to rest, that was for her last words to him. We're going to find out what happened. We're going to get justice. She said it over and over again. She's going to find out what happened.

She's going to find out what happened. And she is. We laid him to rest on that Saturday. And that Monday morning when I woke up, I said, now it's time. It's time to find answers. Amad died in a quiet subdivision of Brunswick called Satilla Shores. According to the Glen County Police report, 34-year-old Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory,

had seen Ahmad running through their neighborhood. So they began chasing him in their white pickup truck. They saw him out running. They grabbed the guns and they ran behind him. They admitted to targeting her son because he looked suspicious. What are you now beginning to think? That I've been told lies. What I was told by the detective was all wrong.

Police report was totally different. totally different. Amal wasn't burglarizing anything. My mom was just running. And Greg McMichael and Travis McMichael chased this young man in the street and hunted him down and shot. In the Glen County Police Report, Wanda

learns more about the details of that day. Travis McMichael shot Amad Arbery three times. three times at close range with a shotgun. Six, seven, around. Yeah. All right, guys, everybody's got the weapons up, correct? Yes, you got the weapons. Okay.

While Amad Arbery blade dying in the streets, with Travis McMichael, literally covered in Ahmaid Arbery's blood. Blackmail, middle of the roadway, like about mid-20s. Law enforcement began their investigation. When police arrived on the scene, to tell us shores that day.

Graben Michael was almost animated in describing what had happened. We see him come around the corner. He's going down here. We pull up beside him. Hey, stop. We want to talk to you. And he just keeps on running. Travis and Michael would fire the fatal shots.

Was much more subdued. He was sitting on a curb. Just breathe, okay? Almond's body was less than 10 feet away. And then that's my father. He was with me with some vain. Graeme and Michael established the narrative. He said Almond attacked his son.

and Travis had acted in self-defense. And Graeman Michael tells the officers that, you know, I would have shot him myself if I had to. I honestly, if I could have got a shot of the guy, I shot him. When the police arrived, Gregory McMichael talks about his long history in law enforcement. So I grabbed my fruit to step back, it was an old Glick County PD issue, by the way,

that he's just basically one of them. You know, I was chief investigator with the DA's officer. with the DA's office for 93 years, so I know what you gotta do. I know everything, you know. Graemeant Michael was a formerly a police officer in that he went to work for the district attorney's office. As soon as he says that, they drop their guard and begin to give him professional courtesy.

They don't look at him as someone who's perpetrated, possibly a crime. They begin to look at him as a colleague, and they begin to take everything that he says at face value. Yeah, it was just the damn melee, you know. They accepted everything he had to say as gospel. What are they doing with my son over there? Are they?

I don't know, sir. After the shooting occurs, Gregory McMichael calls his former boss, Jackie Johnson. Jackie Johnson was the longtime district attorney down in Brunswick. Jackie, this is Greg. Can you call me as soon as you possibly can? My son and I have been involved in a shooting. I need some advice right away. If you please call me as soon as you're constantly to you.

Thank you. Bye. Greg McMichael calls his former boss, District Attorney Jackie Johnson, saying, I've been involved in a shooting. I need some advice. Please call me. We don't know for sure if they ever actually connected and talked. There's nothing in the records that they actually talked in person.

Jackie Johnson told law enforcement officers that day that they should not arrest Travis McMichael. the murder of Vermont Arbery. And so the process was influenced by persons that had relationships with the McMichael's. The McMichaels were brought down the police station, interviewed, and released. There were no arrests. It was as if there had been a traffic accident.

And asked questioning, Graeme McMichael and Travis McMichael went home. This is a story about power, really. I mean, it's a small Georgia town, but it's who you knew. You know, you didn't know. Did you think that you would be able to get justice as a black woman in a small Georgia town? I knew the odds of getting justice for Ahmaud was not on my side. I knew that. Amad was killed on a sunny Sunday afternoon and no one went to jail.

My winter brother got visited. I was visited where Amad fell. I would go there and sit there just to have that connection on where he took his last breath. I thought Amma was just running in my neighborhood. I had no idea that he had ventured out into our neighborhood across the highway. There's a highway that cuts through Brunswick that takes vacationers off to pretty beaches.

Interstate 17 works is a kind of dividing line between Brunswick and Sotilla Shores. The people who live on the Satilla Shores side are more affluent. They have better schools, better housing. The people that live on Ahmad's side of Interstate 17 are, for the most part, impoverished. And so you can imagine what it feels like to be separated from another way of life and not by a lot of distance. And I think that has something to do with why Ahmad would run on the other side of Interstate 17, be able to see another way of life, imagine it for himself.

Wanda lived in a neighborhood with mixed nationalities. And she said that he was safe until he crossed the road into the white neighborhood. Was there a racial divide? Was he running in the white section of town? He was. If I would have known, I would have asked him to stop because I knew it wasn't safe. It wasn't safe. I've been a resident of Glen County since I was like 18, so I know that that stuff is there.

When you say that stuff is there, what do you mean? The prejudice or the racism. In order to get to Sotilla Shores from his neighborhood, Ahmaud had to run my residences that had Confederate flags flying out front. I hate to say it, but... Racial profiling does happen here. And I've experienced it myself. And I'm a pastor.

It's unfortunate, but it does happen. A lot of people classified in this case is Amada Arbery was guilty of one thing running while black. Chicago. Sebastian Manuscalco's new stand-up special, It Ain't Right, is coming to Hulu on November 21st. 30 years ago, Jeff Bezos? Complete nerd.

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Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bonus subscribers. Terms apply. This is a story about power, really. I mean, a small Georgia town is who you knew and who you didn't know. And I bought Arbery's mother, no connections, didn't know anybody. I knew that I had to do something because I was being ignored. Days and weeks had passed and these people were still free. To have to deal with your son being murdered and then

Then, nobody's arrested, no justice. They absolutely underestimated Wanda Cooper-Jones. She was dogged in her pursuit of the truth in this case. They thought that one single black woman was not going to be as disruptive as she ultimately proved to be. There was clearly some conflicts right away. Jackie Johnson immediately recognized she had a problem because Greg Michael had worked for her. Glenn County District Attorney Jackie Johnson recused herself after the shooting happened.

A District Attorney from a neighboring area, George Barnhill, picks up the case. George Barnhill is another longtime District Attorney in South Georgia. Basically, I was hoping that the DA would call me and tell me that he had indictments for arrest. So that was my prayer. At the same time, the country was finding out about this culture. about this COVID outbreak. And so you had a local tragedy taking place, but then you had a national, global tragedy

that was taking place. And I think it was pushed aside. So she starts digging into this herself by Googling. She didn't have a lawyer, she didn't have investigators, she went out, she Googled. So I turned into an investigator. Wanda says she found a connection between Greg McMichael and George Barnhill on

social media. I went to social media and found Gregory McMichaels and his friends named George Barnhill. The district attorney? Yes. So then when I went to Mr. Barnhill's page, I saw he had a son. She finds out that George Barnhill's son works for the DA and in Glen County, where Raymond Michael had worked all those years. The new DA had had personal connections and with both Shackie Johnson and the mid-Michaels himself. She told me that she didn't think it was right for the case to go to him. And she was on the phone calling the Attorney General. She was calling anybody who would listen.

Every morning I wake up and make a phone call, and no one would return my phone calls. I couldn't imagine what she felt like as a mother and having door after door slamming your face, but she kept on pursuant. She kept on pursuant, she kept on digging. Wanda's tireless efforts eventually yielded results. George Barnhill would recuse himself from the case because of Wanda Cooper Jones

beating the drum that the sentence was not right here. So that was like a small victory. In recusing himself, D.A. Barnhill denied any allegations of bias. But he made sure before he left to write a letter to the Clinton County police saying this is self-defense, there's no criminal charges warranted, nothing to see here. It's basically the tenor of the letter. And so he created the foundation of the argument that they did nothing wrong. In his letter, D.A. Barnhill writes, it's our conclusion that there's insufficient probable cause to issue arrest warrants

at this time. It's shocking for a prosecutor to make that statement. Really what Wanda had said that, you know, this was being swept in the rug. It was laid bare in that letter. It was a get-out-of-jail-free card for the McMichaels. The case is then handed over to another district attorney, Tom Durdon. Tom Durdin, the third DA in the case, was considering convening a grand jury. But because of the pandemic, the courts in Georgia were closed.

How frustrating was it for the family? It seems like everyone is going on with their life. But we're still stuck here, and we're screaming at top of our lungs, and nobody's listening to what happened. It had been two months since her son's death, and out of the blue, a New York Times reporter reaches out to Wanda about telling Ahmad's story. I told him what I was up against, and he said, I can help.

I can help. And Ms. Roberts, no one had ever told me that. It was the first time the case got attention in the national media. Her pursuit of justice proved it was more to the story. What came a few weeks later, which shocked the nation. Just 36 seconds of grainy video, suddenly the world knows the name Amad Arbery.

That was really where the case took a big turn. It was sick, and I can't say this any more clear. It was like he was treated like an animal, gunned down. This morning, the race to find a potential COVID-19 vaccine is a total number of COVID cases. U.S. now around 1.2 million. The pandemic was full-blown, and we were talking about shutdown. Dozens of plants closed across the country, thousands of workers sick. And courts were closed, so all of that made it difficult for this case to break through, and that is, of course, until the video came out.

Breaking overnight, the video changed everything. Showing this 25-year-old unarmed background. It was the first week of May. The first week of May in 2020, and WGIG, a Brunswick radio station, post on its Twitter account a video of Ahmaud Arbery being chased through the streets of Sotilla Shores. It was like a dream, a nightmare. I couldn't believe that this was happening in our city. Just 36 seconds of grainy video showing the last moments of Ahmaud

Arbery's life. I still remember today. Our lawyer, he called and told us to give a break of social media today. He didn't want you to see this. He didn't want us to see the video. My daughter, she had called me cry. It told her apart. It told my whole family apart.

I never seen nothing like this before. And when I seen my kid running for his poor dear life, and I wasn't there to help him, That thing really told me down. Did you watch the video? I saw the last couple of seconds. I can see Amad. And he had turned to run away.

And he had turned to run away. and what I carry is seeing him as he's falling. And it breaks my heart. The McMichaels perpetrated all of this. They chased the young man. They put him in a situation where he feared for his life. And as a result of fearing for his life, he tried to defend his life, and then they shot him dead. Anyone who saw that video, their interaction was, good God, this is a lynching.

There's growing outrage over chilling video showing the deadly shoot. A 25-year-old, unarmed black man who was chased by two white men and fatally shot. No arrests had been made. The community's demanding answers. No, no, no peace! No peace! It was a stressful time and it could have went a lot of ways. I saw the city really come together like I never seen before. Of course there was a crisis but nevertheless we came together. Everybody's not about justice but it really is just us.

We tired of us. I think most of our citizens of the white community were unaware that this level of injustice was still being carried out. And their support to get justice was refreshing. Once the cell phone video became public, it was just a matter of a day or two, before Georgia's governor, Brian Kemp, asked the Georgia Bureau investigation to take over this case. Within 36 hours, GBII agents were at the McMichael's house putting handcuffs on Greg and Travis. Father and son caught on camera in that fatal incident have now been arrested and charged with murder.

My older son Marcus called. He said, Mama, they got him. They got the McMichaels. 74 days after he was shot and killed, the McMichaels are arrested. What did that feel like for you after working so hard? It was unbelievable. I knew that God had hurt my prayers. The murderers of Ahmad Aubrey was arrested.

We would not rest until they are convicted in behind bars. The Georgia Attorney General replaced the third DA at his own request. A new prosecutor has been assigned to the case of Ahmed Aubrey. It was early May. I was appointed as the special prosecutor in the case. prosecutor in the case of Ahmaud Aubrey's murder, being the fourth prosecutor to be involved. And that family is reeling. And you feel the emotion of what you are tasked with doing. No justice. No peace. Hands out. Don't shoot at what matters. You're now dealing with the whole world watching.

After the video was released, there was this examination as to how did all these months passed by and there was no progress in the investigation in this case. It's important to note that law enforcement has had the video of the shooting from day one. It was hard to believe that that video could be seen and police not acting on it. The people who were making a decision or whether or not to prosecute Neiman Michaels not acting on it. It was just hard for me to believe that we had elected and paid officials that had the knowledge of this video and still found a way not to do their jobs. It is an amazing thing that we could all as human beings look at the same video and see something

so different. The sole reason it became public is because the McMichaels and their supporters thought he would prove their case, that they thought it would prove that this was self-defense. The McMichaels wanted the video released. They saw it as exonerated. They felt that it helped their case. When you see the video, you consider it a video of a murder, perhaps. When some people see the video, they see it as two men trying to effectuate an arrest,

and the arrestee resisting arrest, trying to then kill. the arrest doors, and self-defense at hand. Graeme and Michael thought it cleared him. It thought it told his story. I mean, obviously, that's not how the rest of the country saw it. Now everybody wants to know who shot that video. One of the neighbors saw a pickup truck with a man in it. So I know that it was a third party.

I just didn't know what party played in it. A lot of times, These videos are shot by witnesses or someone who's not involved in the case. This case was not done. It was shot by one of the eventual defendants. Three days after the release of that Travis McMichael killing Ahmaud Arbery, hundreds of people gathered peacefully in Brunswick to honor Ahmad on what would have been his 26th birthday.

I have a black son to him, and I'm afraid for him every day to be walking out in these streets. I attended a lot of rallies in South Georgia area. Every county that we visited, moms would come to me insane. I lost my child. The police killed my child. Wanda Cooper Jones was convinced that somebody else might have been involved in her son's death. She had no problem saying, well, look, to arrest her nice, but we want to make sure that everyone involved in my son's murder and pay for it. Almost a week after that video came out, a man named William Roddy Bryan speaks to ABC News.

I've never experienced anything like that before. whoever the young man was that I did not know. I don't really know what else to say other than it was unsettling. Ryan's attorney, Mr. Gough, began to offer up his client as a witness to this terrible incident. My client was trying to take a video of what was going on. I don't think there was any question that Roddy was one of the good guys. His lawyer kind of goes in the offensive and says,

Roddy's a victim here. In some ways, he just shot a video, he's just a bystander. It's a bystander. Roddy Bryan sees a young man running down the street that he doesn't know, OK? And he's not running to anything. He's running from something, OK? And then a white pickup truck that he

recognizes from the neighborhood comes by. And he goes in his house, he gets his keys, he has his cell phone, and he gets in his truck. Somewhere after he pulls out, he starts recording. I pray for the family. I'm sorry for you loss. I'm not proud that I shot the video, but maybe it helps in the end.

He apologized for the pain that Wanda was experiencing. It was really one of the more mystifying aspects of the case. Two weeks after Brian spoke to ABC News, he was interviewed by the GBI, the Georgia Bureau, of investigation. The man who captured that video now arrested. William Roddy Bryan has been arrested by Georgia authorities on charges, including felony murder.

We had Roddy Bryant arrested because we believed that he was just as culpable as the McMichael's in the murder of Ahmaud Aubrey. Now, this was during COVID, so we were able to follow CDC guidelines to impanel a grand jury after which all three of the current defendants were indicted. Justice! Now!

The murder of Ahmaud Arbery shocked the conscience of the nation. And then George Floyd was killed. I can't breathe! No justice! No peace! No peace! It's really the first global anti-racist movement that we'd ever seen.

The protests were multigenerational, they were multiracial, but to do so in the middle of a pandemic. pandemic. Millions and millions of mass people all over the planet, the back-to-back murders of Breonna Taylor, Ammaud Arbery, George Floyd really put on display the sense of which black lives do not have value. Greg certainly didn't want Amad Arbery to get hurt or killed. Is Greg McMichael a racist? What's your death? of racist. There's a perspective in that neighborhood that they were being menaced by somebody.

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A lot of people can. I cannot understand how did a man lose his life when there was no evidence of a serious crime being committed. That's the wrong question. It's inaccurate. What's the right question? What did the jury believe? I understand you have reached a verdict as to each defendant. If you see a white man running, you think, well, there's a jogger. If you see a black man running, I think you call into question why he's running.

he's running. He was just wondering around under the carport, it looks like he doesn't know good. If he didn't have his belief that he was actually committing burglaries, then all you would have is there's a black man running. We pull it beside, hey, stop, stop, we want to talk to you. And he just keeps on running.

I can't say this any more clear. It was like he was treated like an animal, gun down. This case is not about racism or racist motives. This is just a neighborhood, some people trying to do the best they could to stop the crime in the neighborhood. When you hear that they say that race has no bearing on this case, what is your reaction?

There's three men chasing a black young man. He's unarmed. They have weapons. They have a truck. What else it could it be? The three men accused of killing Ahmad Arbery were in custody. At this point, we call Richard Dive

from the Georgia Bureau of Investors. investigations to the witness stand. From the video you can tell that Mr. Aubrey comes out of the residence. GBI investigator Richard Dyle testifies at a June 4th preliminary hearing, laying out with video and other evidence what really may have happened on February 23rd, 2020. Ahmaud set out from his home that's sunny Sunday and about two miles later crossed over into the Satilla Shores neighborhood. When you look at the street layout of Satilla Shores, It's a bunch of winding streets like most subdivisions are.

The first time we see Ahmaud Arbery in Satilla Shores is from a porch camera. The timing on that porch camera is off by about an hour and five minutes. At 104 p.m., he enters a home that's under construction. Ahmaud Arbery stops and walks in this house. Surveillance video shows him just walking around, looking. That construction site sort of became ground zero of all this. At 108 p.m., a neighbor is captured on that incorrectly timed porch camera, calling police concerned about reported break-ins in the neighborhood.

There's a guy in the house right now, and he said someone's breaking into it right now? No, it's all open. It's under construction. Four minutes after he enters, Amad Arbery exits the house and continues. running. And he's running right now. There he goes right now. Okay.

I just need to know what he was doing wrong. You've been caught on the camera a bunch of before at night. Kind of an ongoing thing out here. A different home camera picks up an image of Ahmad as he heads deeper into Satilla Shores. Mr. Greg McMichael was in his front yard working on some cushions for his boat when he sees Mr. Aubrey running down the street. On police body camera, you can hear Greg McMichael kind of excitedly describing how Arbery is running by. He comes hauling ass down the street.

I mean, he ain't jogging. He's hooked up. I run in the house. I said, Travis, the same guy that broke in the house down there. I said, come on, let's go. So Travis runs and gets his shotgun. I grab my fruit to step back. At 1.10 PM, the porch camera picks up

Greg and Travis McMichael in their truck and they're driving following Ahmaud Arbery. Amad Arbery and that's when the chase starts. Amad then crosses over to Burford Road with the McMichaels following him in their truck. We see him come around the corner. He's going down here. We pull up beside him. Hey, stop, stop. We want to talk to you. And he just keeps on riding.

William Roddy Brian has this night owl camera. And on that camera, we see Ahmaud Arbery running by with the McMichaels following in their truck. Roddy Brian tells investigators that he's working on his porch when he sees what's happening. so he grabs the keys to his pickup truck and joins the chase. I pulled out of my driveway, I was going to try to block him. For five minutes, Ahmad is trapped in Satilla Shores. And no matter which way he runs, down Burford or up Holmes, there's a truck blocking him. Ronnie Bryan picks up his cell phone and begins recording what you see right here.

I tried to block him again. That didn't happen. They went around me. I turned around, come back. He started coming back towards me. Roddy drops his phone. You can hear his truck maneuvering around. One time when I cornered him up over here, he was trying to get my truck.

You can see some palm prints appear to be swipes on the rear driver's side door. When Travis looks back, he sees Mr. Arbery trying to get into the truck. They try to get in my door. So Travis is very much on guard. Roddy's video shows Amad Arbery running along. Holmes Road and as he meets up with the McMichaels he's boxed in at 1.14 p.m. Greg McMichael talks to a 911 operator. I'm out here. It's kill the shores. There's a black male running down the street. And so you saw the son Travis get out of

the truck with a Remington shotgun. Travis gets out with the damn shotgun. Amad you can tell doesn't know what to do. He wants to run around. He goes to the left. He sees Travis. as he goes to the right, and then does go around the passenger side of the truck. We don't know why. Amad Arbery went to the right and then crossed and turned in front of Travis McMichael's truck. The guy turns and comes at him. In the seconds that that confrontation happens is obscured by the pickup truck. We don't know exactly what went down. Travis McMichael and Ahmaud Arbery were struggling over that shotgun and then the shots go off.

He shoots him three times. You see him immediately collapse and it's over. A very short time after the shooting occurs, law enforcement is on the scene. And they get out of their vehicle, body cameras are on. cameras are on. He had no choice, you know, you've got the McMichaels walking around and you've got Amad on the ground. Nobody initially focuses on Amad.

He's the kid that's dying and probably may well not be dead yet. All right, guys, everybody's got the weapons up, correct? Once you feel like a scene is safe, then you immediately start rendering care to the person that shot. There is eventually that by another officer that arrives on the scene. He's still breathing, man. Yeah, I know, I'm gonna try and do something for him. I think at that point it's way too late.

Just stay over there for me, sir. Yeah, just stay over there. Yeah, there's nothing I can do for this gentleman. He stopped breathing a couple of minutes ago. I had pressure on it, but there was nothing I could do. You can tell Travis is in total distress. He's walking around. He's sort of verbally agonizing.

I told him, stop, stop, stop until he hit me. I had nothing to do. There's nothing else I can do. It just doesn't look good. I mean, it just shot me. Roddy Bryan tries to help police. He admits he has the recording of the shooting. Nobody got us on video.

You just witnessed a, right? I got it. You got it on video? I thought he didn't get away. William Roddy Bryan tells officers that ultimately he was taking that video to identify Amad Arbery to police. Because at this point, I can see his face with my camera. I mean, if the guy would have stopped, you know what I mean?

Wouldn't have never happened, you know? Should we've been chasing you? I don't know. Within an hour of the shooting, Roddy is back working on his porch. February 23rd, everybody went home except Amad Arbery. Travis and Greg McMichael have been stereotyped as southern rednecks out to kill black people because it's a sport. Greg sees it as a tragedy. A tragedy that he and his son set in motion. Well, one might say a tragedy that Ahmaud Arbery set in motion.

If you want to understand how the events of February 23rd unfolded, you have to look at the back. of the defendants as well as their lives in the Satilla Shores neighborhood. The neighborhood that Ahmaud Arbery was killed in is a middle-class neighborhood. It's predominantly wide. Like a lot of the neighborhoods, it's an interesting combination. You've got some marshfront property where you have some very nice homes, and then you have the interior homes on interior lots, which tend to be smaller and less special. and less special.

Graham and Michael had a home there. Graemeant Michael was in law enforcement for many years. He was a cop first and then went to work for the Glen County District Attorney's Office. He was an investigator with them. Had just retired a year previously. Tell me about his relationship with his son, Travis. They're close. They both like the water.

Of course, Travis was in the Coast Guard, having grown up on the water like Greg did. Travis grew up in Brunswick. He went to Brunswick High School, graduated in 2004. I'll live right there. Travis McMichael was 34 years old. He'd moved back in with his parents, and that's where he was in Sotilla Shores. How you doing, sir? Hey. William Roddy Bryan lived in Sotilla Shores nearby the McMichols. He worked in a hardware store. Roddy Brian is a soft to the earth kind of guy.

He's the kind of person that everybody who meets likes. Nobody got us on video if you just witness. of you just witness it. Yeah, I got it. Roddy Bryant. I mean, he supplied the next best thing for the prosecution to a confession. At what point did you start videoing?

Well, I thought he'll get away. So that was... I don't know what I got, because half the time I was trying to drive. How well did he know the McMichaels? Did he have a relationship with that family? He didn't have a relationship with that family. There was a perspective in that neighborhood that they were being menaced by somebody.

And it really was a neighborhood. It really was a neighborhood on edge on February 23rd of 2020. Why on edge? Because the volume of theft had become a real issue. In the months from about October 2019, up to February of 2020, there had been a real uptick in property crimes in the neighborhood. Did Travis ever report the crime? Yes. On January 1st, 2020, when his gun was stolen out of his car, he filed a report with the police.

Police responded, and they made a report. Despite the defense claims that there was a spike in crime in the Satilla Shores neighborhood, the prosecution argues that in reality, there was only one other burglary call between January 2019 and February 23rd, 2020. Larry English was a homeowner. He had a homeowner construction in Sotilla Shores. Larry English had reported to a neighbor that about $2,500 worth of electronics equipment had been taken from a boat that was parked at the house. And that's when he decided to get more cameras there. Later he'd come to realize that he didn't know for sure where that stuff had gone missing.

But to the residents there in Satilla Shores, and specifically the McMichaels, they thought that stuff had disappeared from that construction site. English had video footage showing people going in and out like any construction site in the neighborhood people will just sort of wonder and look and see what the house is there were no signs of this has no trespassing there were no doors on the house at the moment we saw white couples sort of go on a date there and hang out on the property we saw children coming to play in this area of interest we also saw from Larry English's video a black man on his property on

three different occasions now at the time nobody knew who this man It was later confirmed that that man was Ahmaud Arbery. Ahmaud had been in that house a couple of times, not really picking up anything, not really looking like he intended to do anything, almost in a sense of being curious. Over the months leading up to the shooting, Larry English had called police several times

when his security cameras would alert that somebody was on his property. There's somebody back over there on the property again tonight. It's a black male not wearing a man. Not wearing a shirt, got tattoos on his arms, and I'm there a lot of colored shorts. Looks like he doesn't know good. By the time the police get there, those people would be gone. By the time the police get there, those people would be gone. The county police, anybody in here?

So one officer tells English that if this happens again, he should contact his neighbor, Greg McMichael. Did the families know each other? No. They did not. No. Greg McMichael had not talked directly with Larry English, but he talked to other neighbors about Larry English and the problems he was having with intruders in his home. 911. What's the address of your emergency? It's a Ticilla Drive, 230. Is it a till a drive? What's going on? I just called a guy running into a house being built. Two houses down from me.

February 11th, just 12 days prior, Travis had left the house to go put gas in his car. And as he drove past the English house, he saw a figure in the yard. And he recognized the guy. He thought that's the guy we've seen before on the video. What did he look like? It's a blackmail, red shirt, white shorts.

When I turned around and saw him and backed up, he reached into his pocket. I don't know if he's armed or not, but he looked like he was acting like he was. Do you think he was there to burglarize that home? Of course not. No. A lot of people cannot understand how did a man lose his life when there was no evidence of a serious crime being committed. That's the wrong question. It's inaccurate. It's not taught.

What's the right question? Why did Amad Arbery decide to attack Travis holding a shotgun? because that's what led to the loss of Ahmaud Arbery's life. So a guy just on a truck jumps out and points a shotgun at you. And Ahmaud Arbery is supposed to just stop? The Amad Arbery case is not about black, white. It's about does a citizen have a right to protect their neighborhood and then ultimately himself.

When you hear that they say that race has no bearing on this case, what is your reaction? There's three men chasing a black young, a black young man, he's unarmed, they have weapons, they have a truck. What else could it be? My boy been shot three times, two times in the chest and one time in the arm. And you mean this telling me that ain't hate? This is a racial hate crime.

It's hate. I am a life! I am a crime! I am alive! I am a light! I am a light! Let's take our life and let's land up the streets out here! One of the things that this case brings to light is the extent to which race and racism

manifests itself on people's bodies. The Ahmaud Arbery case is really a horrible demonstration of that, the extent to which this black man was running through a neighborhood. People saw him and they responded to him as if he was a threat. If you see a white man running, you think, well, there's a jogger. You have the ultimate freedom of movement. If you see a black man running, I think you call into question why he's running. You can't ignore race.

And if Alman Arbori was white, I think it's fair to say he'd be alive. What do we want? Yes, yes! What do we want? This whole community in Glen County was already aflame. with anger, with concern, that this was a hate crime that had happened in their own backyard. People saw the vanity plate on Travis McMichael's truck that also has a Confederate emblem on it.

So everybody started having a story about the alleged racism of the McMichaels. Is Greg McMichael a racist? Well, what's your definition of racist? Is he somebody who is racially intolerant? No. No. If it means I have a belief as a white person, Greg McMichael, that black people are inferior to white people, no.

He doesn't believe that. Travis and Greg McMichael have been stereotyped as southern rednecks out to kill black people because it's a sport, and there's nothing in their background to suggest that. There's a clear understanding of the power structure in the South. Whiteness is on top, blackness is subservient, and Amard Arbery became an unfortunate chapter in that long history of Southern culture. What we have is a string connecting the past and present, and that string is Citizens Arrest. The Citizens Arrest Law in Georgia allows a private citizen to, if they observe a crime being committed,

allows them to detain that person until the police arrive. The history of the Citizens Arrest Statute in Georgia dates back to the Civil War era. They passed this law to control enslaved Africans who are trying to flee. It empowers any white person to basically stop any black person and arrest them. In the aftermath of slavery, 1865, black people were in this sort of strange position, newly freed in the South. And then by the 1880s, that hope turned into terror. Segregation, lynching, the clan, all of those things were rooted in a sense. were rooted in a set of racist practices that were about organizing where black people could and could not go.

The citizens' arrest laws essentially become cover for the lynching of thousands of African Americans in Georgia and in the American South. In May of 2021, the state of Georgia amended its citizens' arrest law, dramatically limiting its use. I think the state of Georgia is moving in the right direction. Unfortunately, I had to lose my son to get significant change, but again, I'm still thankful. And Wanda, you know, she doesn't want just justice, but she wants change. The demand for a hate crimes law grew louder after the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in South Georgia. It was sufficient to move the Georgia legislature, one of the most conservative legislatures in the country,

to enact a hate crime law. Ahmaud Arbori's life mattered. Not only did it matter to those who knew him and loved him, it also mattered to state law in Georgia. And nothing can change that. Greg and Travis McMichael did not set out to kill anybody. They set out to detain Ahmaud Arbery until police could arrive. We see him come around the corner, he's going down here, and we pull up beside him. Hey, stop, stop, we want to talk to you.

And he just keeps on running. And Arbery is supposed to know that. These are citizens who are making a citizen's arrest. He's supposed to know that. What Ahmaud Arbery knows is I've now been caught after having been in that home. Did police find anything on his body that had been stolen? No. Was there anything from the home that he seemed to be carrying at some point?

I told him, stop, stop, stop until he hit me. I had nothing to do. I could, there's nothing else I can do. Greg certainly didn't want Ahmaud Arbery to get hurt or killed. That was not his hope or intention. And so, yeah, that's a tragedy. He sees it as a tragedy. A tragedy that he and his son set in motion.

Well, one might say a tragedy that Ahmaud Arbery set in motion. Ahmaud Arbery set in motion by being in a home that wasn't his. On the fifth day of the trial, Kevin Gop drops a bombshell of a comment. If they're pastors Al Sharpton right now, that's fine. But then that's it. We don't want any more black pastors coming in here. If a bunch of folks came in here dressed like Colonel Sanders with white masks sitting in the back, I mean, that would be good.

Two rings surrounded by a steel cage. You're going to play games. We're going to play games. Oh my God, are you kidding me? This is going to be a war. Stream Survivor Series War Games, November 29th at 7 Eastern on the ESPN app. Tonight, jury selection, he is about to get underway in the murder trial of three. white Georgia men for the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Aubrey.

This jury selection was unlike anything that Southeast Georgia had seen. 1,000 people were summoned in order to pick a pool to whittle it down to a jury panel of 12. We come here today focused on getting justice because you cannot lynch a black man in America in 2021 and think that it would be handled the same way that we handled matters back in the 1950s. No one knew what the final makeup of that jury plus the alternates were until the special prosecutor Linda Dundakowski stood up and it was a bombshell. African American jurors made up one quarter of the jury panel. But the actual jury that was selected has only one African American male on it. Of the 12 African Americans in

that pool, the defense had struck 11 of the 12. To a lot of people, This looked like the epitome of discrimination, especially when you consider that nearly 27% of Glen County is black. This court has found that there appears to be intentional discrimination in the panel. Quite a few African American jurors were excused through preemptory strikes

exercised by the defense. But that doesn't mean the court has the authority to resee. In the court of public opinion, it just didn't sit well with many of the leaders. in the community that this jury would not accurately reflect the community where Amman Arbery was killed. We're going to turn now to the very difficult start to the trial in the Amad Arbery case today, the emotional scene inside that courtroom in Georgia. Why are we here? We are here because of assumptions and driveway decisions. The special prosecutor of Linda Donakowsky got up and talked for nearly an hour and a half,

laying out slowly and piece by piece what she thought this jury should know. Great with Michael is in front of 2.30 still a drive. He's all alone, and he sees Mr. Arbery running really, really fast down the street. He actually uses the words hauling ass. Ladies and gentlemen, this is driveway decision number one. And what does he decide to do? He runs inside to get his gun. He's assumed the worst

and has absolutely no immediate knowledge of any crime whatsoever. And I've really set the tone for this entire case that this jury needed to focus on the fact that the defendants didn't have any concrete evidence when they decided to go chase and ultimately kill Ahmaud Arbery. Travis McMichael made a decision,

a knowing, intelligent decision to pick up a Remington 12-gauge shotgun and go with his father and get in his pickup truck to go after Mr. Arbery. Driveway decision number two. And then Mr. Bryan makes his driveway decision and he joins the McMichaels in chasing down Mr. Arborie. Drag McMichaels said it perfectly. Mr. Arbery was trapped like a rat. That's what he told the police. Trapped like a The defense, through their opening statements, made it very clear that they believe the McMichaels were defending their neighborhood. This case is about duty and responsibility.

It's about Travis McMichael's duty and responsibility to himself, to his family, and to his neighborhood. They continuously use the arguments of self-defense and citizens. and citizens arrest highlighting that the video doesn't tell the whole story. Travis has no choice but to fire his weapon in self-defense. He's on Travis and Travis has to fire. Because at that point it's his life or Amad Arbery's life. As the state went on presenting its case, they played for the jury that video recorded by Roddy Bryan. Mr. Arbor ran away from these three defendants in their pickup trucks.

for five minutes. Marcus Arbery, Ahmaud's father, walked out of court. He didn't want to see it. Wanda Cooper Jones sat in the back corner of that courtroom and for the first time saw the complete video of her son being shot. I avoided the video for the last 18 months and I thought it was time to get familiar.

But what happened to Amai, I'm glad I was able to stay strong. Stay in there. At this time, the statement call officer, Jeffrey Brandenberry. The prosecution calls to the witness stand the Glen County police officers who arrived on the scene after Amad had been shot. Do Greg McMichael ever indicate to you at that time that he thought Ahmaud Arbor, the guy, had committed a crime that day? No, ma'am. While speaking with you, did Greg McMichael ever use the word burglary?

No, ma'am. Do he ever use the word trespass? No, ma'am. Did he ever tell you, while you're talking to you? him that he was attempting to make a citizen's arrest. No, ma'am. Do you ever even use the word arrest? No, ma'am.

Do you ever even use the word detain? No, ma'am. The defense is going to have to prove that they suspected Amad was committing a felony in order for the McMichaels to claim they were trying to make a citizen's arrest. I was reminded of one matter that I wanted to address. On the fifth day of the trial, without the jury present, Kevin Goff makes a bombshell of, of a comment. The right Reverend Al Sharpton managed

to find his way into the back of the courtroom. If we're going to bring high-profile members of the African-American community into the courtroom to sit with the family during the trial and the presence of the jury, I believe that's intimidating and it's an attempt to pressure. And if their pastors Al Sharpton right now, that's fine.

But then that's it. We don't want any more black pastors coming in here. If a bunch of folks came in here dressed like Colonel Sanders with white masks sitting in the back, I mean, that would mean, that would be your outcome. That statement was totally asinine, ridiculous. This case is not about racism or racist motives. This is just a neighborhood and some people trying to do the best they could to stop the crime in the neighborhood.

The defense insists it's not about race, but everywhere you look, every time you try to get away from race, race comes back in. I will follow up with a more specific motion on Monday, and my apologies to him who might have inadvertently dead offended. Kevin Goff gave what he called an apology, but it wasn't taken that way by a lot of people. He spoke his mind. Actually, he spoke his heart. All right for the jurors.

After the state rested, the defense really hadn't signaled who their witnesses were going to be and whether any of the defendants were going to take the stand. We're asking the court not to ask him if he's going to testify or not, but the court can inform him of his rights. Then, to everybody's surprise, Travis McMichael, the man who actually shot and killed Ahmaud Arbery, takes the witness stand.

So we tell the truth, all truth, and nothing but the truth. I do. Kevin Goff's statement about the Pastors being in the gallery created a windstorm of a reaction. He said no more black pastor, look at what you brought in now. Outside the Glen County Courthouse in Georgia today, hundreds of black pastors came to pray. God, we're looking for a miracle. Black pastors in Georgia, black pastors in America, are synonymous with the civil rights movement.

It speaks to the two different Americas that still exist. That for this white man, this lawyer, he saw that, the presence of black ministers as a menace, as a threat. In Black America, these are revered figures who provide comfort and context and difficult moments. Inside the Glen County Courtroom, the defense is now presenting its case. Defense calls Travis McMichael. When Travis McMichael was called as the first defense witness, it shocked everyone.

Jaws were dropping. Travis McMichael looked a lot different on the stand than he did in the body camera footage. Putting Travis on the stand does make him more humane and likable than what the video presents him as. I want to give my side of the story. I want to explain what happened. Travis's lawyers have tried to put together a picture of him as someone who cared about safety, someone who cared about the well-being of his parents. Did they share things with you about what they were hearing happening in the neighborhood about crime?

They did. Travis McMichael was able to give this jury his Coast Guard, his jury, his training as a law enforcement officer. Do you have any training on hand-to-hand? hand-to-hand combat. Yes. Did you have any training on how to retain your weapon? Yes. The defense wants to suggest that he was essentially the pseudo cop in his neighborhood.

Did you want to stop him and hold him so the police could come and arrest him? That was my plan. Yes, sir. The courtroom is silent as Travis McMichael talks about those final moments with Ahmaud Arbery. What did you do? I shot. Why? He had my gun.

He struck me. It was obvious that he was, it was obvious that he was attacking me that if he would have got this shotgun from me, then it was a, this is a life or death situation. And I'm going to have to stop him from doing this, so I shot. This was a major risk to take the stand as a defendant in this case,

in this case because they are faced with a video that shows them chasing Amad Arbery. They'd have to explain why they did that. And the danger is that they don't have a concrete reason to be chasing help. Thank you, Judge. The prosecutor, Linda Denikowski, came out of the gate really hot.

She went straight to the cornerstone of the defense's case, which is all wrapped up in a citizen's arrest. Not once during your direct examination Did you state that your intention was to effectuate an arrest of Mr. Arbery until your attorney asked you that leading question? Isn't that right? Yes. The prosecutor is clearly trying to get Travis McMichael to acknowledge that he never saw Amman Arbery doing anything wrong. And you had no idea what he'd actually been doing that day.

Not at that time, then. One of the most effective parts of the prosecutor's cross-examination is when she, asked Travis McMichael what Ahmaud Arbery wasn't doing, and she gives a list. And he never yelled at you guys? No, ma'am. Never threatened to you at all? Yeah, he did not threaten me verbally. It essentially was poking a hole over and over in the defense's claim of self-defense.

Didn't brandish any weapons? No, ma'am. Didn't plow at any guns? No, ma'am. Didn't plow at any knife? No, ma'am. Never reached for anything, did he? No.

He just rang. Yes, he was just right. The prosecutor really challenged Travis McMichael's contention that Arbery was a threat to him. Your father is in the pickup truck, correct? Yes, ma'am. And he has his 357 Magnum, correct? He has it, yes. Finally, she built this picture of the power imbalance of an exhausted young man

coming up to this huge pickup truck with two armed white men. So you're telling this jury that a man who has spent five minutes running away from you, from you, you're now thinking is somehow going to want to continue to engage with you, someone with a shotgun, and your father, a man who's just said, stop or I'll blow your head off by trying to get in their truck? That's what it shows, yes, ma'am. Over the course of two days, Travis McMichael testifies for six hours. He would be the only defendant to take the stand.

The only other witnesses called by the defense? Spread till the trees, whole trees and nothing about the trees. Thank you. A handful of neighbors in Sotilla Shores. The defense was trying to create this continuous narrative of a neighborhood under threat. They wanted neighbors to corroborate what Travis McMichael had said was true, which was the neighborhood was on edge. Other than the homicide of Mr. Aubrey, violent crimes were few and bar between or non-existent in the neighborhood. Is that correct?

That is correct. This is ironic. The most violent crime that these neighbors and Satilla Shores would have witnessed is the death of Ahmaud Arbery, which was carried out by one of their own. We turn next to the closing arguments in the Ahmaud Arbery case. It was clear that in the prosecution's closing in this case, they wanted to drive home this idea of just how unbalanced the situation was on February 23rd. Three-on-one, two pickup trucks, two guns. They want you to believe that he is the danger to them and he was scary. After the closing arguments, it's now up to the jury to decide the fate of the three men.

The jury deliberated for 11 hours. Outside the courthouse, a crowd has been gathering, waiting for the verdict. for the verdict. Madam Foreperson, I understand you have reached a verdict as to each defendant. We have. It's the day before Thanksgiving, and a crowd has now gathered outside the courthouse. After 11 hours of deliberation, the jury has reached a verdict. Madam Foreperson, please hand your verdict forms to the sheriff.

Mr. McMichael, please stand. Verdict is as follows. In the Superior Court of Glen County, State of Georgia, the State of Georgia versus Travis McMichael. Count one, malice murder. We the jury find the defendant, Travis McMichael, guilty. Woo! She bowed to find justice for her son.

for her son. And Wanda Cooper Jones kept her promise. As to Gregory McBichael, count two, felony murder. Guilty. As to William O'Brien, count three, felony murder. Guilty. All three men guilty of murder. Ahmaud Arbery's family has been waiting

more than a year and eight months for this moment. And let the word go forth all over the world. That a jury of 11 whites and one black in the deep south stood up in the courtroom and said that black lives do matter. Let's keep fighting. Let's keep doing it and making this place a better place for all human beings. Amen. I never thought this day would come.

Thank you for those who marched. Those who prayed, most of all the ones who prayed. Yes, Lord. The verdict shows in this case of the death of Ahmaud Arbery that citizens' arrests and self-defense was not something that the jury bought. I was deeply disappointed. I mean, I really felt that this jury was going to acquit Mr. Bryan. There's enough tragedy in this case to go around. Lee Mig Michael has lost her husband and her son through this verdict, and she's devastated.

I hope history looks back. I hope history looks back on this case as a case where we sought justice for Ahmaud. We sought justice for the family and that justice was done. What would you say to the McMichaels and Mr. Bryan if you could? Ammaud's not coming home. I've lost my son. They go to jail. They still have life.

I've lost my son. You've been listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault. Friday nights at 9 on ABC, you can also find all new broadcast episodes of 2020. Thanks for listening.