This archive report was first published on 5 June 2020.
On February 23, 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery was shot by Travis McMichael in a residential neighborhood in Brunswick, Georgia.
According to testimony in a court hearing on Thursday, McMichael stood over Arbery's body after shooting him and used a racial slur.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Richard Dial told the hearing that William Bryan, one of the three white men who chased Arbery down in pickup trucks, admitted that McMichael used the epithet.
"Before police arrival, while Mr Arbery was on the ground, he heard Travis McMichael make the statement, 'fucking n,'" Dial told the hearing.
Arbery's case was buried by local police and justice officials until Bryan's video of the shooting leaked to the media on May 5.
The case sparked nationwide anger, and was passed on to state investigators.
Travis McMichael frequently expressed hate for African Americans and used the N-word epithet on his text communications and social media, according to Dial.
Originally, the McMichaels claimed they killed Arbery in self-defense, but Dial rejected that claim.
"I don't think it was self-defense by Mr McMichael. I think it was self-defense by Mr Arbery," he told the hearing.
