Why the First Officer Responding to the Ahmaud Arbery Shooting Did Not Provide First Aid.
The first police officer to respond to the Ahmaud Arbery shooting near Brunswick, Georgia, testified in court Monday that he did not provide first aid to Arbery due to the danger of the situation, as well as his lack of training and medical equipment.
Former Glynn County Police Officer Ricky Minshew said that when he arrived at the scene of the shooting on February 23, 2020, his immediate focus was on officer safety.
“When I arrive at a scene, I scan the area for immediate threats and then I scan the area for victims who need emergency medical help,” Minshew said.
Minshew – who testified I was in the area responding to a report of a “suspicious black man” before hearing “two loud pop sounds” – arrived at the scene of the shooting and said he saw two white men strolling while Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was on the ground bleeding from his wounds.
Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, and his neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan Jr., are accused of malice and felony murder in the Arbery shooting, who was running in a residential area before being chased by the men in two vehicles. Bryan followed the McMichaels and recorded a video of the shooting. Minshew identified the trio in court as at the scene.
Minshew testified that after seeing Arbery lying on the ground, he notified the dispatch to dispatch emergency medical personnel to the area, then worked to preserve the “integrity of the scene” for investigators.
When asked by prosecutor Larissa Ollivierre how Arbery appeared, Minshew said that he was face down and appeared “not responding to his surroundings, he appeared to be dead”, noting that the amount of blood under him was “exceeding the perimeter of his body.”
Minshew said he heard from Arbery a type of labored breathing that he knew as a “death rattle,” and said he had encountered similar situations in the past where people did not survive for much longer.
Ollivierre asked Minshew if he performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, to which he answered no, stating that he did not do it because “he did not know any of the people or any of the facts or circumstances of what had happened.”
Minshew testified: “Since I was the only officer on the scene, with no other police unit monitoring my back, there was no way I could have shifted my attention to something medical and still be able to observe my surroundings and monitor my own Safety. . ”
He also told prosecutors that he did not have the proper training to assist and that his vehicle lacked the proper equipment to deal with gunshot wounds or serious injuries.
Body camera footage was shown in court
The defense team showed the jury graphic images from Minshew’s body camera on Monday in an effort to show “inconsistent statements” made by the former officer, arguing that Minshew’s response time to the scene was misplaced.
The video shows Gregory and Travis McMichael walking near Arbery’s body. Travis McMichael can be seen wearing jeans and a bloody t-shirt on the back of his head and arms.
Prosecutors played the extended version of William Bryan’s cell phone video of the chase and shooting on the court Monday.
Wanda Cooper-Jones, Ahmaud Arbery’s mother, saw the video showing her son’s shooting for the first time in court on Friday and told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Monday that he hoped the video would show the jury that Arbery had done nothing wrong before he was killed.
“I hope the jury sees what the world sees is that Ahmaud had not committed a crime,” Cooper-Jones said. “I was just going for a run. He passed that vacant house, but again, Ahmaud did not commit a crime, and Ahmad was hunted down and eventually killed. ”
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