Ahmaud Arbery's aunt believes the mostly white jury will 'make the right decision'

Watching the trial of the three men accused of murdering her nephew has been painful for Thea Brooks and her family — but, ultimately, she says she's hopeful about the outcome. 

Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael armed themselves and chased Ahmaud Arbery in a pickup truck after they spotted him running in their neighborhood on Feb. 23, 2020. A neighbour, William (Roddie) Bryan, joined the pursuit in his own truck and took cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery three times at close range with a shotgun.

The three men, all white, have been charged with murder and other felonies in the killing of Arbery, who was Black. 

Defence attorneys say the McMichaels and Bryan were legally justified in chasing and trying to detain Arbery because they reasonably thought he was a burglar. Greg McMichael told police they'd spotted Arbery a few times inside a neighbouring home under construction, and wanted to stop him from leaving the subdivision. He also told police his son fired in self-defence as Arbery attacked with his fists and tried to grab his shotgun.

Brooks has been closely watching the trial alongside Ahmaud's parents. Here is part of her conversation on Thursday with As It Happens host Carol Off.

How's your family coping with this trial?

It's day by day. It's been rough. The images. The conversations that were had.

There has been frustration. There's been sad moments. There have been angry moments. And there have been moments of confusion.

But overall, we're coping.

Ahmaud's dad, Marcus, is your brother. How is he doing?

For the most part, he's pushing. But, emotionally, he's distraught.

Defence attorneys are making the case that [the accused] were attempting a citizen's arrest on the day that your nephew was killed. And this is a law that has been largely dismantled because of what happened to your nephew, but it was in place at the time. So what's it like for you to hear this defence?

There's no way, with all the evidence that we've seen [and] heard up until this point, which is Day 5 [of the trial], that they were attempting any citizen's arrest.

They only told that to the lawyers that are representing them, but never once did they say [to police] they were trying to stop him and hold him for an arrest to be made. 

One of those men also said they had him, quote, "trapped like a rat."

They said they cornered him. They angled at him. They ran him off in a ditch. They had him trapped like a rat. That, to me, is a hunt. 

They chased him for five minutes through a neighbourhood on foot while they used vehicles, and he ran.

I just, I'm not understanding what kind of defence that they even think they have.

That video [of Ahmaud's killing] is what has led to this trial, and it was very late in coming out. Anyone and everyone who saw it would share that sense that they were chasing him down. And have you tried to imagine what was going on in Ahmaud's head, in his soul, when he was on that road?

I've thought about it every day. What was he thinking? How is he feeling? I'm sure he was afraid. 

I know that at the end, when the incident occurred, that he ran until he couldn't run anymore. It's scientific logic that it's fight or flight. So you've already ran for five minutes. That's your flight. And now you can't get out. Behind you, you have a truck that had someone in it. And then in front of you is a truck with two men in it…. They're armed and you're not. The last thing for you to do, because at this point, you probably feel like you're going to die anyway, is to at least try to fight. And that's what he did.

You've had to watch that video many times, I would imagine, over these days.

Yes ma'am. From start to finish. In bits and pieces. Start and stop it. Rewind it. See this part. Slow it down. Watch this part. Yes, for five days now.

It must be so hard on your brother and your sister-in-law.

It's been almost two years, but she's never took the time to sit down and watch it. My brother has never watched it. He's heard about it. He's been told about it. But Monday was actually the official day that they were actually encountered with it.

And then there were photos that we had never seen until Monday [in court] of him laying in the street deceased. Just, you know, the memories that you don't want, but that's all you have left.

I just want to ask you one question about the jury selection process, which is for a jury that is about the killing of a Black man in Georgia that is made up of 11 white people and one Black person. It's obviously been very controversial. What do you make of that? Do you feel that that is a jury that could actually deliver the verdict that you seek?

At first, I was upset about it. And then when you think about it, if you had to put mostly African-Americans on there, this fair trial that they were looking for, to be honest, they probably wouldn't have got. 

But I also feel OK with it because there are a lot of people that are not African-Americans that hurt and have the same sentiment that we do, that actually feel our pain, that live in this city, that wants to bring closure to this city, that wants the city to get back to the way it used to be and try to unite and make things like this not occur again.

So I'm OK with the fact that there are mothers on that jury. There are fathers on that jury. Grandparents on that jury. 

They're not a sequestered jury. So at night, when they go home, they have the opportunity to think — they can't discuss — but think about being able to [come home] to little Andy and hug him. What would it be like not to? What would it be like to miss him at Thanksgiving and Christmas? What would it be like not to have him present because he was killed by something as senseless as being in a house under construction that didn't even belong to the people who killed him?

One African-American is there. Jesus was one man. He was followed by 12. All we need is one.

I think that the people on a jury are going to do what they're supposed to do. I have no ill-feeling about them. I really feel strongly that by the grace of God, they'll make the right decision, not just for our family, but for this community.

Written by Sheena Goodyear with files from The Associated Press. Interview produced by Katie Geleff. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.