Racist messages, vile online posts highlighted in hate crimes trial of Ahmaud Arbery's killers
ABC News
In his state trial for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, Travis McMichael testified he is not a racist. But federal prosecutors are presenting evidence that shows otherwise.
In his state trial for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, Travis McMichael testified he is not a racist. But prosecutors in his federal hate crimes case have presented the jury with numerous statements, text messages and social media posts to allege racism was the underlying motive for why he, his father and their neighbor chased down and killed the 25-year-old Black man.
FBI analyst Amy Vaughn testified on Wednesday that she found a digital onslaught of messages, mostly from Travis McMichael, in which he allegedly routinely used racial slurs to describe Black people and advocated violence against them.
In one instance, Vaughn testified that the 36-year-old McMichael posted on social media his reaction to a news report on a confrontation between two white people and two Black people, allegedly saying Black people needed to be made examples of.
"'They'd be scraping up brain matter if this happened to my wife or daughter,'" Vaughn read out loud from McMichael's alleged message in U.S. District Court in Brunswick, Georgia.
