from the DA's letter
Fifth
The video made by William Bryan clearly shows the shooting in realtime. From said video it
appears Ahmaud Arbery was running along the right side of the McMichael truck then abruptly
turns 90 degrees to the left and attacks Travis McMichaelwho was standing at the front left
corner ofthetruck . A brief skirmish ensues in which it appear Arbery strikes McMichael and
appears to grab the shotgun andpull it from McMichael The shot is through Arbery s right
hand palm which is consistent with him grabbing and pulling the shotgun at the barrel tip , the
2nd and 3rd wounds are consistentwith the struggle for the shotgun as depicted in the video , the
angle of the 2nd shot with the rear of the buttstock being pushed away and down from the fight
arealso consistent with the upward angle ofblood plume shown in the video and that McMichael
was attempting to push the gun away from Arbery while Arbery was pulling it toward himself.
The 3rd shot too appears to be in a struggle over the gun. The angle of the shots and the video
show this was from the beginning or almost immediately became-- a fight over the shotgun .
Given the fact Arbery initiated the fight, at the point Arbery grabbed the shotgun, under Georgia
Law , McMichael was allowed to use deadly force to protect himself.
Just as importantly, while weknow McMichael had his finger on the trigger, we do notknow
who caused the firings. Arbery would only had to pull the shotgun approximately 1/ 16th to
1/ 8th of one inch to fire weapon himself and in the height of an altercation this is entirely
possible. Arbery s mentalhealth records & prior convictions help explain his apparent
aggressive nature and his possible thoughtpattern to attack an armed man .
OCGA 16 - 3 - 21Use ofForce in Defense, once confronted with a deadly force situation an individualis allowed to use
deadly force to defend themselves or others OCGA 16 - 3- 23 . 1Georgia' s NoDuty to RetreatLaw , an individualis
notrequired to back away from or submitto an attack; OCGA 16 - 3- 24 [b ] The useofforce which is intended or
likely to cause death or greatbodily harm to preventtrespass on or other tortiousor criminal interferencewith real
property other than a habitation or personalproperty is notjustified unless the person using such force reasonably
believes that itisnecessary to preventthe commission of a forcible felony.
OCGA 16 - 3- 24 .2 A person properly and legally defending themselvesis immune from prosecution