- 2 white men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery repeatedly used racial slurs, jurors heard at their federal hate crimes trial.
- In one message, the man who fatally shot Arbery said he loved his job because no Black people worked there, an FBI analyst testified.
- Travis McMichael, his father, Gregory McMichael, and their neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, were convicted last year.
Two of the three white men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery frequently used racial slurs in text messages and on social media, according to testimony at their federal hate crimes trial in Georgia.
FBI analyst Amy Vaughan testified on Wednesday that Travis McMichael — who fatally shot the 25-year-old Black man on February 23, 2020 in the Georgia neighborhood of Satilla Shores — has a history of making both racist and violent comments towards Black people.
Less than a year before Arbery's murder, text messages showed McMichael discussing a new job with a pal and telling the friend that he loved the gig because were no Black people, jurors heard, CNN reported.
"They ruin everything. That's why I love what I do now. Not a [N-word] in sight," McMichael said in the message, Vaughan testified.
In another text conversation a few months before the shooting, McMichael wrote: "We used to walk around committing hate crimes all day," The Washington Post reported.
"I say shoot all of them," McMichael had commented on a Facebook video that showed a group of primarily Black teens attacking a White teenager, the news outlet reported.
Vaughan testified that fellow defendant William "Roddie" Bryan also made bigoted comments involving racial slurs and derogatory remarks about Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Messages showed that Bryan used the N-word and the derogatory term "bootlip"— his "word of choice," Vaughan said, according to CNN.
Just four days before Arbery's killing, Bryan referred to his daughter's Black boyfriend using the N-word, the court heard.
McMichael's father, Gregory, who is also a defendant, posted a meme on social media back in 2016 that said, "White Irish slaves were treated worse than any other race in the US," The New York Times reported.
"When was the last time you heard an Irishman bitching about how the world owes them a living?" the post continued, Vaughan testified, according to The Washington Post.
Both McMichaels and Bryan were convicted of murdering Arbery in November in a Georgia state court and were sentenced to life in prison. Bryan was the only one given the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors are now trying to prove at the hate crimes trial, which began this week, that the three defendants were motivated by race in their murder of Arbery.