pull out a gun and shoot him. you started it. you called them out. they re better at this than you. then all of a sudden, i m scared, i have to defend myself. that s not the way this works. excessive force. so first off, ahmaud had to be using unlawful force against them. remember the guy running down the street right here? he s using excessive force, unlawful force against them right here, right? then travis mcmichael hod to reasonably believe that he had to defend himself against mr. arbery. and they re going to get up here, and they re good, these defense attorneys are good, they re going to get up here and make it perfectly they re going to make this seem like, oh, yeah, this is scary. he had to pull a shotgun out on him. they ll make it seem so reasonable. put on your critical thinking caps. use your common sense after closing arguments. now the force has to be reasonable. unarmed man running with hands
make it seem so reasonable that everything travel and greg did is so reasonable, i ll just ask you, use your common sense and put your thinking caps on. we anticipate they ll say the victim started it or you ll hear he was the aggressor because he was running towards travis mcmichael, but he was running away from mr. bryan, who d already tried to hit him with the pickup truck. he was trapped like a rat. nowhere else to go. or they ll tell you, ladies and gentlemen, this is really about the front of the pickup truck. forget everything else. it feels all about the front of the pickup truck. they ll try and make it seem like, well, he attacked travis mcmichael. we can t see. what we know is his hand was like this, right? doesn t matter. you know why it doesn t matter? because they weren t committing a citizens arrest. they weren t in fear, real fear
that s all you have to do. the evidence is that the defendants attempted to cause a violent injury to the alleged victim by shooting him. that s aggravated assault with a shotgun. now, i want to be really clear, okay. travis mcmichael does this with the shotgun. we see it on the video. this is the beginning of the aggravated assault. beginning of the aggravated assault. the aggravated assault continues as he steps away from his car door and blocks the road. now, what did he say to you? putting distance between me and mr. arbery. was he putting distance or was he blocking the road? you decide. then what does he do? he doesn t stay right there, does he? we can t see this, but what do we know? he makes it around that car door, right, he makes it over here, right, he s in front of his truck, and he s moving forward, closing the distance on mr. arbery, intercepting mr. arbery, and is right here with that shotgun.
not, hey, travis, i need to call 911, that guy is outside. let s get our guns and let s jump in the truck. encouraging. advising. cut him off, cut him off, cut him off! that s what greg mcmichael said. so that s what we ve got. ladies and gentlemen, how do you really want to think about this? everybody gets a super bowl ring, right? the quarterback gets a super bowl ring, the guys on the field get a super bowl ring, the dude on the bench gets a super bowl ring, right? everybody is involved. everybody is responsible. that s what the law says. cooperation after the fact. now, this applies to the defendants but mostly mr. bryan, because this was brought up when he was talking with agent seacrest and everything. so, first off, cooperation after the fact doesn t erase the crime you committed.
retired law enforcement officers just as it applies to anybody. in other words, the reasonable standard is set by society. you all decide whether this was reasonable or not. travis mcmichael s belief he had to defend himself with lethal force has to be reasonable. so we ve got pointing a shotgun at mr. arbery when he s yards and yards away. had to be reasonable and necessary. but where is the imminent use of unlawful force by mr. arbery? what was he doing? he s running away from mr. bryan s truck. mr. bryan has already tried to hit him with the truck numerous times. he s trapped between two cars with no weapon, no way for anyone to help him because there s nobody out there to help him. he s not threatening anybody.