BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The first Glynn County police officer who responded to Ahmaud Arbery’s fatal shooting was seconds away when Travis McMichael opened fire with his 12-gauge shotgun, killing the 25-year-old in the middle of the road.
Officer Ricky Minshew was already in the Satilla Shores neighborhood just outside of Brunswick after responding to a neighbor’s non-emergency call reporting a “suspicious male” leaving a nearby home under construction, he testified Monday.
As Minshew drove around a curve the afternoon of Feb. 23, 2020, he was flagged down by two men. Then he drove closer and saw Arbery’s body lying in a pool of blood.
The Remington shotgun used to kill Arbery was off to the side in a yard nearby, also covered in blood, Minshew testified, while McMichael and his father, Greg McMichael, were pacing in the roadway.
Jurors were shown graphic photographs of Arbery’s lifeless body Monday morning as the second day of testimony got underway in the high-profile trial.
They were also shown the cellphone video filmed by the McMichaels’ neighbor, Roddie Bryan, who joined in the chase. Three shots rang out and Arbery stumbled away before collapsing in the road, his white shirt and khaki shorts soaked in blood.
Minshew, who has been criticized for not rendering aid, had CPR training but said he did not feel safe to attend to the dying Arbery at the scene.
“Being that I was the only officer on scene, without having any other police units to watch my back, there was no way that I could switch to do anything medical and still be able to watch my surroundings,” Minshew said.
He also said he “didn’t have the adequate medical training” to handle such a severe injury.
Minshew said he heard what he described as a “death rattle” emitting from the wounded man, who was unresponsive and “appeared to be deceased.”
He had heard the sound before, he testified, once while responding to a suicide and other times after responding to motor vehicle fatalities.
“He had bled out to the point that the blood was exceeding the perimeter of his body,” Minshew said.
Onlookers in the overflow room held their faces in disbelief as the widely shared footage of Arbery’s killing was shown in the adjacent courtroom.
Minshew questioned Bryan at the scene, and Bryan acknowledged that he did not identify Arbery or the McMichaels when he left his front porch that afternoon.
Bryan told him he joined the chase, and attempted to “corner” Arbery with his pickup approximately five times, Minshew said. Bryan also acknowledged that he wasn’t sure if Arbery had done anything wrong, according to Minshew, and that he appeared exhausted after fleeing for several minutes.
“He said that he had to stop and catch his breath,” Minshew testified.
Bryan also said he wasn’t certain if he should have even joined the McMichaels in their pursuit.
“Should I have been chasing him? I don’t know,” Bryan told Minshew.
Outside the courthouse, Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, called the testimony “very disturbing.”
“I didn’t really understand why he didn’t render aid,” she said. “I understood 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 puddle of blood.”
On Friday, Officer William Duggan, who arrived on the scene shortly after Minshew did, put on plastic gloves and knelt down over Arbery. He placed a hand on a gaping wound in his chest to stanch the blood but finally withdrew when he realized Arbery was dead.
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