Officer testifies neighbor ‘cornered’ Ahmaud Arbery before shooting

The police officer who was first to arrive at the scene of Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery’s killing said on Monday that a man charged with Arbery’s murder “cornered” the 25-year-old before he was fatally shot.

Former Glynn County Police Officer Ricky Minshew testified that William “Roddie” Bryan, one of the three white men charged with murder, said he “blocked,” “cornered” and “cut off” Arbery five times, according to USA Today.

“Should I have been chasing him? I don’t know,” Bryan said in Minshew’s body camera footage, per USA Today. 

Upon arriving at the scene, the officer said he saw two men pacing as Arbery was on the ground and “appeared to be deceased.”

Minshew, however, added that he could hear a “death rattle” coming from Arbery, but he did not attempt any lifesaving measures as he “did not have the adequate medical training,” USA Today reported.

“I understand he had to go and secure the crime scene but at the same time he had a guy laying in the middle of the road in a pool of blood,” Wanda Cooper-Jones, Arbery’s mother, said of the officer’s decision not to assist her son, according to USA Today. 

This week will be the trial’s first full week of testimony as Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael and Bryan face charges of malice and felony murder. 

The trio also face charges of aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment but have pleaded not guilty. All three men face potential life sentences.

The jury tasked with determining their fates is overwhelmingly white, comprised of 11 white people and only a single Black member. 

The defendants are accused of shooting and killing Arbery, who was jogging in their area. The men claimed they suspected Arbery in a series of break-ins in the neighborhood.