chorus of concern over a missing chinese tennis star. the mystery e-mail raising more questions. this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening. the three georgia men accused of confronting and murdering ahmaud arbery as he ran through their neighborhood last year rested their cases tonight, but not before the defendant who fired the fatal shot, travis mcmichael, admitted on the witness stand arbery did not verbally threaten him or display a weapon. the prosecution working to chip away mcmichael s claim of self-defense, that he fired after arbery tried to take his gun. the racially charged case has taken some unexpected turns in recent days, including mcmichael s decision to testify and attempts by a defense attorney to keep some well-known black pastors and activists from the courtroom ron allen is in brunswick, georgia with late details. he did not threaten me verbally. all right did he brandish any
weapons? no, ma am. didn t pull out any guns no, ma am reporter: the final day of testimony, prosecutors spent hours challenging travis mcmichael s claim that ahmaud arbery attacked him and that he shot and killed arbery in self-defense back in february of last year. didn t pull out any knife? no, ma am. never reached for anything, did he no. he just ran yes, he was just running. reporter: mcmichael insisting he and his codefendants had been trying to detain arbery until police could arrive, suspecting he had been involved in an uptick in crime in a neighborhood on edge at one point, he accused arbery attacking the pickup truck driven by defendant william bryan. mcmichael testifying he feared arbery would come at him and his father greg mcmichael next. he was acting weird. he was acting funny when i was trying to talk to him prior, so i m on alert reporter: the
prosecution pushed back. so you re telling this jury that a man who has spent five minutes running away from you you are now thinking is somehow going to want to continue to engage with you, someone with a shotgun, and your father, a man who has just said stop or i ll blow your [ bleep ] head off by trying to get in their truck that s what it shows, yes, ma am. reporter: outside the courtroom, hundreds gathered to support arbery s family including black pastors in response to a defense attorneys request restricting how many pastors the family can have in court. singling out two men again this morning. this court is authorized to exclude reverend sharpton and reverend jackson from the courtroom without a hearing. reporter: the judge again refused the request, at the relief of arbery s family i want to say thank you to all the pastors who traveled near and far to come just to be with us in this very, very difficult time. so, ron, now that both sides have rested their case,