Why did he grab the gun? Even if the white dude said something insulting or provocative, one doesn’t try to disarm an armed man. Seems to me he wasn’t thinking clearly.
Does this make the actions of the white dudes acceptable? Hell no. However if someone runs up to you and physically tries to take your gun, what are you to conclude?
That poor guy. He must have been frightened out of his wits! Of course, he’s a chicken shit wuss. Which is why he felt he needed to have the gun in the first place.
Your post misses the point. Why attack an armed man? Do you have a death wish?
I didn’t miss the point.
You are searching for a way to blame the victim.
No I’m not. What do you expect to happen if you attack an armed man?
What makes you think it was an attack by this jogger? The video is crystal clear, that the jogger was attacking no one, while shots rang out first. That's what you are conveniently not seeing. Shots rang out first, while the Black guy was rounding the truck on the right side.
That’s not what the video shows. It shows the dude trying to take the gun away. Why would he do that?
fight or flight. he probably figured he would be shot in the back by running away - so he fought for his life.
That could be, but it might be dumb on his part. I find it hard to believe they would just murder him in broad daylight. Is there any evidence that these guys were out to murder a black dude?
Georgia does not have various degrees of Murder. In other states, you hear First Degree, Second Degree, sometimes Third Degree. Normally First degree is premeditated. Second degree is usually in the commission of another crime. From there it gets into more what we would conversationally call Manslaughter.
Georgia has Murder. In that one statute is no degrees. It does list the various situations. Premeditated, during the commission of a Felony, and all that. Same conditions, just without the degrees thrown in. Often called Felony Murder, it’s all the same in Georgia. It doesn’t matter if you were robbing a store and a man keeled over and died from a heart attack, or you plotted for months to kill your spouse. It’s all murder in Georgia.
Now, for the charge to make sense, you have to look at the totality of the event. What were the McMichael’s doing? They were attempting to stop AA by blocking his path, hemming him in with their neighbor who was following. Travis got out of the truck with his shotgun, and Daddy, got into the bed with his .357 Magnum. Now, here they have already committed one felony. Attempting to detain AA by blocking him in is attempted illegal imprisonment in Georgia. If they had been successful, it would have dropped the attempted.
By exiting the truck with his shotgun, in an effort to stop AA, Travis committed another crime, as did Daddy since he was a part of this mess. Aggravated Assault. In Georgia, you can’t just wave your weapon around in a threatening manner. In fact, it is illegal to detain someone at gunpoint. The Legislature has been debating changing this, but I think that effort is going to be delayed for a bit since they don’t want to be seen as excusing the extreme actions of the McMichaels, or they’ll write it in such a way to insure that actions like those of the McMichaels are not protected.
So you have at least one, and realistically two Felonies before contact is made. We aren’t doing well here if you are a fan of the McMichaels. Now the scuffle, or conflict, and the shooting. Here be the rub. The defenders like to swear it was Self Defense. But in Georgia, Self Defense is not an option when you were the aggressor, or committing a crime. Using Georgia Law, the only person acting in Self Defense was Arbury. Wise perhaps not, but legal.
It all goes back to the laws covering Citizens Arrest. In Georgia, it’s a bet your life move. If you are wrong, you’re the felon by taking the guy into custody. Probable does not cover it. Reasonable Suspicion does not do it for the Civilians. You have to be 100% sure, and the smart move is to get a picture, or a description and call the cops. They can act on Reasonable Suspicion. They can act on Probable Cause. They have the authority by law, that we citizens do not have.
So we know that legally speaking the McMichaels had no legal justification to stop AA. So their actions can not be legal. So the charge is Murder. Manslaughter does exist in Georgia. But the conditions are not met.
For Voluntary Manslaughter it basically has to be reckless behavior that would qualify as a Misdemeanor. Aggravated Assault and False Imprisonment are Felonies. Or a moment of Passion which the normal and reasonable person would have succumbed to. This is the finding your wife in bed with another man defense. You were overcome with a sense of rage and betrayal and killed them in a moment of passion. It wasn’t justified, but we can all understand how you felt Legally speaking.
Now, Involuntary Manslaughter is on the books too. Again, Felonies are excluded, but this time there is a caveat. You could get that, if you were doing a legal action, in an illegal manner. In other words, generally speaking what you were doing was legal, but you did it wrong. Ok, so we’re back to the Citizens Arrest and Confrontation. Is it legal to perform a Citizens Arrest? Yes. What are the conditions? You have to know with essentially 100% certainty that this fellow committed the crime. Ok. But what crime? Suspicion of Burglary is not 100% Knowing that a crime was committed. Trespassing? Arbury did not commit Trespassing. Not according to the law In Georgia. So we would have to stretch the definitions and meanings to the breaking point to fit this event into that crime. But here again, the punishment for Involuntary Manslaughter is still a long one in Georgia. Not quite as long as Murder, but still a long time. It is an option, and the DA may include it as one of the charges to give the Jury an out.
So how does that help you understand the charges against the McMichaels?